


Comfort Only

by Maldorana



Category: Maleficent (2014)
Genre: Cute, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Sleeping Together, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-22 10:27:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 54,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7432859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maldorana/pseuds/Maldorana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Only a few months after Stephan took her wings, Maleficent's life is once more threatened. Fortunately, Diaval is here to help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Storming Out

**Author's Note:**

> I truly enjoyed writing this, so I do hope you'll enjoy reading it as well ;) Many thanks to RavenDiablo and DancingKitKat for beta-reading this story!

Diaval, in his human form, was following Maleficent through the thick forest of the Moors. He raised an eyebrow as his mistress stumbled without any reason. He only knew her since three months, but he had noticed how strange she’s been acting, lately. 

First, she changed him back into his beautiful raven self less and less often after his reports. Then, she was always wincing, which wasn’t really extraordinary of her, but she at least used to smile when he was making a fool of himself or roll her eyes when he was trying to joke around. Now the only feature that crossed her face was this pain-contorted expression. He wondered if she was all right, but he quickly remembered she was the most powerful magical being of the Moors. What on earth would be able to break her, seriously? 

He raised his head as she tripped over something again. Usually, he was the one with the most trouble to walk. He still didn’t like that much those long and heavy legs. Why didn’t she want to change him back into a raven, anyway? He sighed.

But before he could think of any reasons at all, he saw the fairy fall down before his very eyes. He rushed toward her and knelt by her side. 

“Mistress? What’s going on? Are you all right?” he asked urgently. 

He started to panic when she didn’t answer him. After looking her over he figured out she was only unconscious. He took her, rather clumsily in his arms, and hurried to the heart of the forest, hoping to find help from the creatures of the Moors. He was glad she didn’t change him back, or he would have never been able to help.

The fairy remained unconscious most of the day. When she woke up, she had to grit her teeth as stabbing pain came across her back. She was lying on her stomach, wrapped up in a wool blanket. It was dark around her, and as her eyes were getting used to the dim light, she recognized her lodge in the ancient ruins. She tried to move to the side, but the pain forced her to stay still. 

“You shouldn’t try to move,” said a voice from the corner of the room. 

It was Diaval. She recognized him at once. But his voice was unusually gloomy. He got closer and sat down on the chair by her side.

“What happened?“ she asked in a whisper.

“You passed out. Which wasn’t very surprising, considering the state of your scars,” the raven-man said bluntly. 

Her scars? Her wings scars?! Maleficent verged on panic. Did that means he saw the stumps on her back? Her shame, her weakness. That thought sent chills down to her spine, and her inability to move made it even more difficult to bear.

"Were you going to tell me? Or did you simply plan to have me watch you die and I would be happy with my freedom? Was that your plan?" he said coldly. 

It was the first time he dared speaking to her with that disrespectful voice. 

Though she didn’t say anything, he was right, she knew what was going to happen. She blinded herself with denial, as it was out of the question to ask someone’s help for that matter. She kind of hoped that her magic would fight the infection from the inside, and it worked at first, but it wasn’t enough. 

The raven-man looked at her with fierce eyes. He had time to calm down since it happened, but was still very shaken.

Distraught, Diaval got up and spoke, his voice slightly raised but quavering, "I have trusted you. You let me down, Mistress."

With that, he stormed out the front door slamming it behind him.  
The door closed with a loud bang, and the silence filled the air. She knew the raven-man has been a very loyal servant, always by her side, never questioning her orders, but she understood why he just abandoned her. First because she had to face it, she grew quite evil, and second because she did betray him, Maleficent soon realised. He entrusted her with his life, counting on her to give him protection. What was left for him to stay if she was that weak and pathetic? Even if she happened to enjoy his company after those three months together, he too only had stayed with her by interest. Just like Stefan did. A single tear rolled over her cheek.

The pain in her back had lessened, but she figured it was only because she was going to die, that her senses were decreasing or something. She didn’t resist at all when sleep came to take her. The end was near and she couldn’t fight it, anyway.


	2. The Bird's Roar

She opened her eyes slowly, as a blinding light was filling the room. The pain on her back was still aching, and still she was, lying on her stomach. That surely meant she hadn’t died just yet, thought the fairy. She lifted her gaze only to see a bowl of water and several fruits next to her. What on earth - She started thinking, but her eyes met Diaval’s human form near the window. He was nonchalantly eating grapes. 

Their eyes locked and she called out to him in a frail voice, “Diaval?”

“Mistress” he responded flatly.

It was pretty obvious that he was still upset with her. Why would he want to come back?

“I brought food. Eat,” he commanded, before staring back at the window.

Fighting the pain, she weakly leaned on her elbows, and obeyed him. Maleficent knew he was watching her from the corner of his eye, and started to wonder what brought him back with grapes, that he knew to be her favourite fruit. She glanced at him and her eyes widened as she started to piece things together: He wanted her to change him back into his original self, so he could fly away and be free.

“Come over here, Diaval,” the fairy said softly, lying back on her stomach.

He eyed her suspiciously, but didn’t move a muscle. “Why?” 

“I’m not sure I’m strong enough to turn you back into a raven from this distance.” 

“That’s a good thing, because you’re not turning me into anything until I’ve fixed you. Is that clear?” he answered firmly.

The fairy looked at him in awe. Now she was just clueless about the whole thing. His reaction didn’t make any sense to her. Why would he stay and help her if it wasn’t for something in exchange? He seemed so furious at her… Didn’t he? 

“W-What? Aren’t you mad at me?” she let out at once, without being able to hold it back.

“No, you think? Of course I’m mad at you, Maleficent!” he cried, standing up. “You’ve left yourself dying, without telling _me_ anything! I could have helped! How do you think that made me feel?” 

The fairy couldn’t answer that, as it appeared she had been mistaken about his intentions from the beginning. She helplessly gazed at him, not knowing what to say.

He had never dared being that sharp with her before. He hoped he would never have to talk to her like that again, because he hated it, not to mention he may not survive it next time. Furthermore, it felt so wrong in his mouth... Especially with her looking so distressed.  
But he really was mad at her. He had to make her understand that she couldn’t just give up on life, that her life was important. If not to protect the Moors, it was important to him. With his new human feelings, he had realised he grew quite attached to her during those three months together.

“Well I’ve freaked out. Like big time. Thank you very much, Mistress,” he said with an annoyed look on his face. 

He had softened his voice, but it still let his deep irritation show. What was he supposed to do if she wasn’t capable of thinking rationally when it came to her health? He couldn’t take the risk to let her handle everything herself, or something bad was to happen to her.

“Anyway, from now on and until you’re strong enough to stand, I’m in charge,” he pointed out decidedly.

The fairy who was looking at her servant agape, broke eye contact with him to rest her head on her crossed arms. She felt resigned to do whatever he needed her to, and relieved to see she had someone by her side, relieved he stayed with her despite her weaknesses.

“I thought you left forever…” she managed to say, with a shaken voice.

At this, he bit his lower lip and sat down on the chair beside her. He had to do something to make her feel better.

The raven-man slightly cupped his hand onto one of hers and said with a smirk, “You saved my life that day. It’s my turn to save yours.” 

Her eyes found his and she smiled slightly. He removed his hand, remembering how she felt about touching, and leaned into the chair. At least, she was ok, and the whole scolding scene was behind them, thought Diaval. But the harder part will not being able to keep her alive or preventing her to give up on life. The hard part will be to make her trust him.


	3. NO Touching

By the end of the day, things were pretty much back to normal already between Diaval and his mistress, thanks to a lot of bickering and a few jokes from the raven-man. He didn’t feel really comfortable being in charge, to be honest, and he was almost naturally letting her take the upper hand on him as long as it didn’t threaten her health. But now that the time had come to tend to her wounds, he couldn’t just let her do as she wished. 

“I have to apply this balm on your back, or the scars will never heal,” he explained her, for what felt like the hundredth time tonight.

“No. Way,” she growled. She winced at the pain as she managed to roll on her side to face him. She didn’t want to risk him forcing his way to her back. “No touching, remember?”

“It’s for your own good! Besides, I’m in charge, remember?”

Now he _was_ getting serious about the whole balm thing. The first five times, he had mentioned it playfully during their slight banter, letting her hope that it was only a joke, or that at least, he wouldn’t push that hard. But now that he started to remind her he was in charge with a raising voice, she quickly grew very worried. The feeling must have somehow shown on her face, because he softened at once.

The raven-man wanted to help her, but that was something he had to convince her about. He barely managed to imagine how he would feel – how she would feel – if he forced her to stay still while he unclothed her back to rub her aching scars. He shuddered at the simple idea.

“Trust me. I don’t want to hurt you, Mistress,” he assured her after an emphatic sigh. “Three months ago, you saved my life and gave me a purpose. How could I possibly want to hurt you?” the raven-man added with a comforting voice. 

She knew his argumentation was perfectly logical, but that wasn’t a good enough reason. After all, Stefan’s betrayal defied common sense to her, and yet, it happened. How could she be sure that wasn’t going to happen again with Diaval? He was in man’s form after all. What if turning him into a man a little bit every day had made him a real man, with the flaws and all? Without thinking, she let out what was on her mind. 

“You’re a man. Men are greedy, selfish and they take pleasure hurting other living creatures.”

At this, Diaval stiffened with an outraged expression. “Don’t say that!” he spat back at once. “I’m not a man! I’m a raven, remember?” he pointed out with fierce pride.

The fact that she thought of him as a mere man was purely insulting. Surely she remembered the day they met? He hated humans as much as she did, even if he liked the new possibilities this form offered him. 

She sighed heavily and leaned her head against her arms. “It would be so much easier if you could just do it in raven form…” she said, almost to herself.   
All right, he wasn’t _that_ close to humans, but still, they were talking about something rather embarrassing, if not humiliating.

“In human or in raven form, it’s still me,” he reminded her matter-of-factly.

The fairy raised her head to meet his gaze. His eyes full of genuine kindness were enough to make her feel like everything was all right. She realised she had felt that before when looking at him, but it was the first time she fully appreciated it. 

“I know that, Diaval,” she said in a whisper.

But that wasn’t the problem. What bothered her more was the whole touching thing. The first rule she had set up when they met was No Touching, especially in human form. She did so because she couldn’t stand the touch of skin anymore. It reminded her too much of that night. Though, she couldn’t tell him just like that. She remembered the scene he made the last time she compared him to Stefan. The fairy took a minute to choose her words carefully.

“Still, I’m not confortable letting you rub my naked back or see and even touch my scars,” she finally said.

However, she hadn’t expected what came next…

“Do you think I’m confortable doing it? I know you, if I do something wrong, you’ll turn me into a filthy dog or something,” he whined excessively. 

She lowered her head to hide the smile that came across her face. It was pretty smart of him pointing out she was going to be in control, anyway. He knew her well: it relaxed her unconsciously. But that didn’t change the situation. He was not going to touch her, especially there. She stayed silent for a while, eyes closed. 

Diaval gave her a few minutes to think this through, and added with a little voice, “I’ll be gentle. I promise.”

The fairy sighed. He was awfully stubborn, but his attempts were almost touching. She looked at him in the eye, ready to let out what was on her mind.

“That’s not the problem, Diaval. I don’t want anyone seeing them. I don’t want anyone touching me anymore. Never.”

“I’m not anyone.” 

After a short while, she realised it was true. He wasn’t anyone, not anymore. He was her faithful companion, always by her side. He was her wings, and so much more. But the last thing she wanted was to ponder about how much their bond grew during those three months together.

She looked deep in thoughts so he added without thinking, “Besides, I already did all of this, when you were unconscious.”

She glared at him with furious eyes. Wooops, maybe he shouldn’t have say that, the raven-man thought at once. 

“I beg your pardon?” she hissed.

“I-I applied the balm on your back while you were u-unconscious,” he stuttered. Now he _knew_ he was in big trouble. 

“How _dare_ you?” the fairy snarled, staring at him with fierce emerald eyes. She tried to straighten in her bed, but pain shot through her back, and she stayed still, wincing from pain and anger.

Even knowing she was way too weak to harm him in any way, her ferocious eyes made him quaver oddly on his chair. She frightened him to death right now, but he had to convince her, otherwise, she would never get better. So he gathered what was left of his courage, and he hurriedly explained.

“That’s not how you think, Mistress, I swear! I didn’t want to disobey you, but it was either that or letting you die, so I had to do something.” He fidgeted nervously on his chair and added with a whining voice, “I’m sorry Mistress, but I didn’t want you to die.”

The fairy narrowed her eyes at him. She believed him, all right, but she was still furious. She knew he took the right decision, but she wanted to find a good reason to blame him anyway.

“How come you didn’t just call healer fairies to take care of me? You could have killed me by being so negligent!” she snapped at him. “And where did you get the balm, anyway? What if it had worsened the infection?” she inquired, even if she knew that wasn’t true, as the pain in her back had lessened since yesterday.

He raised an eyebrow at her. Was she accusing him of letting her die by carelessness? He struggled against the urge to ask her just who she thought she was to scold him on that matter, and answered anyway, “I figured you didn’t want all the folks of the Moors seeing you like that, so I only summoned one healer fairy, she told me what was the problem and how to heal you, then I brought you here, so your secret was safe. About the balm, she showed me how to brew it.”

He lowered his head and closed his eyes a few seconds as silence filled the air uncomfortably. There was a very big chance she would scold him anyway, pointing out she would have rather had the healer fairies to tend to her wounds, and that furthermore that wasn’t his place to decide such things.

However, her face began to soften, and her muscles relaxed a bit. When she thought about it, he did manage admirably, considering that three months ago, he was just a bird. He saved her life and her pride this day by taking conflicting decisions, and it seems his interests were lying with hers all along.

“As a matter of fact… I have to admit you handled the situation quite well,” she finally let out absent-mindedly. 

He looked up at her with wide eyes, and a slight smile appeared on his face. 

“Except my advanced state of panic… I guess I did,” he playfully praised.

She glanced at him for a few seconds. He had the joyful expression of the loyal servant that was just glad to have pleased his mistress even in the worst situation.

She finally rolled back on her stomach with a wincing face. Now, she was pretty sure she could trust him on this to not take advantage of the situation in any way. It would be awkward and uncomfortable, but at least it would be done. 

“Alright. Do it.”

“Yes, Mistress.”


	4. Through Pain and Cries

There he was. The balm was ready, next to him, and his Mistress was lying willingly on her stomach before him. 

“Hmmm Mistress? Is it ok if I unlace your gown, or do you want to do it yourself?”

The tie was on her bare nape. She tried to move, but she was too exhausted, not to mention the stabbing pain increasing with every one of her movements.

“Just do it.” She spat angrily. “But - ”

“I won’t undress you more than necessary, if that’s what you were thinking,” he reassured at once. “Honestly, what kind of crazy pervert do you think I am?” he added under his breath, sounding exaggeratedly outraged.

She smiled at his childish attempt to lighten the mood and leaned her head on her crossed arms to steady herself. That way, if the pain became too bad, she could at least bite her pillow and not scream in front of him.

His fingers untied the messy knot he had done yesterday, after what seemed like an hour of struggling with the cords, and he thought worriedly at the scold he would get if he couldn’t manage to do it right this time.

Then, he loosened the gown and slid it open, just enough for him to access her back. He exhaled shakily at the sight of her scars. He hoped what happened the last time would not happen with her awake. It felt so gross and awful, she would mock him or get angry.

“It looks like the infection had lessened already. That’s good,” he told her, trying to compose himself.

He dipped his fingers into the balm and rubbed his hands with the weird substance.

“M-Mistress, I’m pretty sure that’s going to hurt so please don’t hex me,” he said timidly.

He told her the truth earlier: he really was uncomfortable with the situation, thought Maleficent. It could have eased her mind, but she knew she was going to suffer immensely as soon as he’ll touch her. She shut her eyes close and waited, gritting her teeth. But when his hand brushed her back, instead of the pain, she only felt wetness. He was rubbing the hollow in her lower back.

“I start low so you’ll get used to my touch ok?” he asked while massaging her sore skin. “Then I’ll slowly climb up to the infected part.” He dipped his hand on the balm again and went back to her. 

His hands moved in little circles, applying the balm and working out her tight knots at the same time. After a few minutes of inner struggling and denial, she eventually admitted it: It felt absolutely exquisite and she had to bite her lip not to moan. It even made her forget the pain from her scars. Her tensed body relaxed quickly after that, and his hands proceeded moving to a higher position on her back. 

She suddenly let out a sharp sigh as he reached a painful area. He withdrew his hands at once. 

“Mistress?” 

She took a deep breath and replied, ”Go ahead, Diaval.” 

He resumed his massaging a little lower, and softened his touch as he climbed to the painful part. She noticed he was stroking her skin with extreme care, always pressing less and less as he went higher. By doing so, he managed to limit the pain to an annoying stinging, but he soon reached the stumps.

That was something else entirely. At the only sight of them, he thought he was going to be sick, and he looked the other way. He rubbed a big amount of balm on his fingers and brushed around the stumps to apply the balm as gently as possible. It broke his heart when he saw his mistress biting at her pillow in pain. Her body was now even more tensed than at the beginning. Everything inside him was begging him to stop hurting her, and it made him nauseous to have to keep doing it. His brain tried to convince him that he wasn’t torturing her, that it was for her own good, or else she would die. He was the only one who could help her and she needed him to do it. But it couldn’t change how he felt inside. 

As he stopped to dip his hands in the balm again, his knees gave in, and he had to half kneel on the side of the bed to steady himself. Now he was brushing the tip of the stumps. He could feel under his fingers the exact feathery place where the flesh and bones had been cut, and he started to sob uncontrollably. His hands were shaking, his eyes and nose were getting wet, and the sound of her muffled cries worsened again the mess that he was. Now tears were leaking freely on his cheeks, as he finished applying the balm.

He couldn’t stop the sobs, they came as they did yesterday when he applied the balm and he hoped it wouldn't happen again, especially while she was awake. However, the tears came anyway as he had trouble bearing the site of where her wonderful wings once were. He couldn’t stop his eyes and nose leaking, he couldn’t stop himself shaking, but he tried to tie the laces of her gown anyway. His body was moving by itself, without thinking, as it would worsen again his pathetic condition.

Maleficent let out a deep breath when she was sure he was done, letting her body relax a bit. That has been tough, but to be honest, she was expecting far worse. After a minute of feeling him struggling with her gown, she turned her head to tease him, but froze at his sight. 

“D-Diaval? What is it? Are you alright?” She asked worriedly.

He wasn’t alright. How could he be alright? He couldn’t stand to have so many heart-breaking feelings rushing inside him. And he felt gross and pathetic again, he felt miserable. But most of all, he felt so sorry for her… 

He answered clumsily, not able to suppress the sobs in his chest, nor the shaking of his body, “I-I’m sorry Mistress. I don’t know w-what’s happening to me. I just f-felt really sad an-and I can’t stop myself doing t-that.”

She looked at him in concern. Was he really crying so hard because of her? It seemed unbelievable, and yet, why else would he be crying? She rolled on her side to face him, ignoring the pain in her back and her loose gown. “You’re crying, sweet bird,” she explained softly. 

Ashamed of himself, the raven turned man lowered his head but his sobs and tears only intensified. The fairy couldn’t stand watching him like that, so she did the only think she knew would calm his cries.

“Come here.” 

She opened the blanket and let him cuddle up against her. Ignoring the pain, she took him in her arms, with his cheek on top of hers, and he responded clumsily to her embrace. He held her tight, his hands on her lower back, mumbling in her neck how much he was sorry. About her wings, about the pain he caused her, about yelling at her, and even about his hopeless behaviour right now. 

She just realised how much the emotions from these past two days had overwhelmed him. A few months ago, he was a mere raven, living a simple life, but now he had to deal with all these new situations and emotions, and it was only normal for him to lose it.

“Shhhhhhh. It’s ok, Diaval. Everything is all right,” she whispered to his ear.

The fairy truly was touched by his reaction. It felt nice to have someone around that cared so much for her. She was now considering to trust him, even rely on him and confide in him. That simple realisation frightened her. She thought she would never trust someone again, that she’ll turn evil, consumed by hatred and revenge, repelling everyone around her and eventually would end up alone. It seemed to be the best solution to avoid the horrendous feeling of betrayal in the future. But still he was, mourning her wings and sharing her pain. She felt sweet warmth growing in her chest. It was a shame she would have to free him soon.

The pain in her back began to sting her again, and she pulled away from him, cradling his face with her hands. The raven-man seemed to calm down as she looked at him with tender eyes and wiped away his tears. When she awkwardly realised their noses were almost touching, she gently pushed on his cheek to make him lie down next to her and nestled against him comfortably. She now was partially on top of him, with one arm resting on his chest and the other under his head.

She sighed lightly as silent tears kept running down his face. “Diaval. You’re my wings already. You don’t have to be my tears too, you know,” she said cheerfully, trying to lighten the mood. 

He offered her a soft smile and his wet eyes were almost laughing at her attempt to joke around. With a bit of magic, she cleaned his face, erasing all traces of his cries and pressed her forehead against his chin. She let out a deep breath. Sleeping was out of the question tonight – what happened with Stefan’s last embrace was still too vivid in her mind – but this felt… kind of good.


	5. Staying

A few hours before dawn, Maleficent was still awake, her fingers entangled in her servant’s hair. She didn’t even know when she started playing with his dark locks, but it kept her awake, and sort of eased her mind. To be honest, she was a bit disturbed. What happened the day before totally changed the way she saw her companion. She couldn’t think of him as a mere servant anymore. His behaviour made her almost think of him as her friend. Her pet friend, she corrected wittingly.

She looked at him while he was sleeping and leaned her head back on the pillow next to his. She had spent the night trying to fight the feeling, but now she eventually admitted it: she liked this. His arms around her, his smell, even his touch, it made her feel safe and cared for. That was crazy, but she could get used to this. Not for lovey dovey purpose, definitely, but she could come to him if she happened to miss the sky too much or so. For comfort, she thought at once. Yes, his arms made her forget about everything else and lessened her pain, so why not making good use of them, once in a while? At least, during the little time left she had with him.

“Doing a little bit of morning preening, Mistress?” he said drowsily, leaning into her touch.

She suddenly withdrew her hand, realizing he had awakened, and watched him yawning. It was still very early. The sun hadn’t even started to rise. 

“Go back to sleep,” she said in a hush.

“Will you keep preening?” he inquired with a pleading voice.

She smiled at the question. She knew he liked this as a raven, and she had quickly found his favourite spots for her to scratch. However, she never did such things when he was a human. Maybe his favourite spots were just the same? Her hand climbed up to his scalp and she stroked at the base of his skull. 

He let out a delighted groan and tilted his head to grant her better access. He liked this so much, he wished he could do the same to her, but he figured he’d find a better time. 

Barely a few seconds later, Diaval began to feel sleepy again, feeling his mistress’ sweet hand stroking him gently. He stayed silent for a while, enjoying her touch, his mind wandering between dream and consciousness. 

“I’ll always stay with you, Mistress,” he mumbled docilely. “That way, I’ll be sure no harm will come to you anymore.” 

Maleficent smiled. She wasn’t sure he was awake or not, but in any case, she liked those words. Unfortunately, she had learnt from experience that words couldn’t show the true nature of someone. Only time and actions could. Staying to protect her? She had heard that before. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to believe him, but she just couldn’t. For now. She almost thought, but she quickly remembered she would have to free him soon. She had to tell him.

She stopped her petting and placed her hand on his chest. “Diaval,” she called, asking for his full attention.

The raven turned man opened his eyes and looked at her, silently asking what was on her mind. No expression was shown on her face, but he noticed her eyes were darker than usual

“You don’t have to do that anymore. You saved my life already, that means your debt is paid. I’ll free you as soon as I get better, so you can go back to your life.”

At this, he stopped breathing for a moment. 

“W-What? Why? I want to stay with you!” he protested vividly.

Maleficent raised an eyebrow at him. What got into him? Yes, he proved himself to be a caring soul and a faithful servant. But wasn’t he tired of following orders? Didn’t he want to be his own master again? Free souls, that was what winged beings were supposed to be, she thought with bitterness. His rightful place was out there, so why did he want to stay?

“Why would you wish such a thing, silly bird?” she managed to say calmly.

The raven-man took a few seconds to think this through. He was absolutely sure of how he felt, but it was difficult for him to put this into words. Not to mention he didn’t want to scare her with too much caring.

“I… I’m sure I’d get really bored if I’d go back to my raven’s life now. Besides, you’re my mistress. I don’t want you to replace me with some other bird,” he nearly whined. “I don’t want to share my mistress,” he added sulkily. 

She chuckled lightly and leaned her forehead against his chin, breathing into his neck. “Such a possessive little bird you are.”

She kind of liked that spirit of his, not being willing to share her. It made her feel even more special than she knew she was; special to him. While she thought about it, she felt very much the same. She didn’t want to share him either. He was _her_ pet.

He answered by squeezing her gently, and she added in a hushed voice, “If it is your wish to stay, you may stay.” 

“Thank you, Mistress,” he whispered, resting his head against hers.


	6. First Joke

Maleficent woke up in the late morning. She cursed herself as soon as she realised she didn’t manage to stay awake the whole night. She couldn’t trust him on that just yet. However, when she thought of it, what was left for her to lose, anyway? 

“Diaval?” she called as she noticed he wasn’t cuddle up against her.

That was weird. She couldn’t see him or touch him, but she did recognize his smell. She turned her head, following the scent, and discovered his long coat on top of the blanket covering her. She smiled and lay down on her stomach. That probably meant he was going to come back soon. The winter was on his way, and it was not like him to wander for too long in the cold weather without proper clothing. She also found a black feather next to her head, where he was supposed to be. It must have fell from his hair. She took it in her hand and slowly dozed off to sleep again, thinking that maybe she could trust him on this, after all.

The sound of footsteps woke her a few minutes later. She opened her eyes only to see her servant putting down a basket of food and a canteen on the chair next to the bed.   
She yawned and rolled on her side with ease. The motion wasn’t that painful now. 

“Good morning, Mistress,” he said cheerfully.

The fairy glanced at him with peaceful eyes. He was so sweet and full of life, it was almost like his presence warmed her chest. Her heart smiled to him, but her face remained stern out of habit.

“Where were you?” she inquired, a bit sharper than what she intended to.

“Not very far. I didn’t want to leave you but I had to grab some food and water. I left my coat so you wouldn’t worry.”

“That was very thoughtful of you,” she admitted quietly, nodding in appreciation.

For this time, she chose to spare him the scold about the cold he would catch if he didn’t wear proper clothes in such a chilly weather. She didn’t have the patience to explain why his well-being was more important than his caring behaviour towards her, even though she liked that very much.

The raven turned man couldn’t help but smile when he noticed she was holding one of his black feathers. He didn’t say anything, though, and watched her hide it under her pillow. Surely she didn’t want him to make a big deal out of it.

“Help me sit, Diaval, will you?” she commanded, extending her arm toward him.

 _Wait. What?_ Diaval thought at once. Wasn’t it too painful for her to move? He didn’t want her to get hurt! 

“Mistress, are you sure?” he asked in a worried voice.

It was true the pain was still there, but it wasn’t that bad. He did a good job with the balm, and her magic seemed to help as well, she could feel it growing inside her, each day a little more. It was all for the better, really, because she couldn’t wait to go back home. She missed the Moors, and she missed her tree.   
The fairy looked up at her servant and remembered he was waiting for an answer.

“Yes, Diaval, I’m all better now, don’t worry,” she said, a bit annoyed at him questioning her orders.

He didn’t seem convinced, and just looked at her with a sceptical face.   
She sighed heavily. That was going to take ages to convince him, so she added:

“Besides, if us fairies don't stay in motion for too long, our blood stops circulating, dries up and we will die.”

At this, Diaval went white. He looked at her agape for a second, and hurried by her side.

“What?” He yelped and took her arm to help her sit in a rush. “You never told me that! Are you ok, Mistress?”

She gasped at the sudden pain when he pulled her, but ended up chuckling at his expression. He was so easy to fool, that was almost cute. She couldn’t blame him to be so credulous, really, because she usually never joked. 

As soon as he realised she was mocking him, he took an offended look and crossed his arms on his chest sulkily. She got him. He should have thought the healer fairy would have told him about this if it was true. 

“Mistress, that’s mean!” he whined.

“Sorry Diaval but the look on your face was priceless.”

A slight smile appeared across her features. As everyone from the human land, he didn’t know much about fairies and all the other creatures of the Moors, but at least, he had found an interest on them. Maybe she should take some time to tell him about all the plants and creatures of her realm. She had never thought about it before, but it was only normal for him to get to know his new home better. She’ll start by the more glowing living forms, as she had noticed he was particularly drawn to them.

“Come sit with me, sweet bird,” she offered.

They ate together on the bed, enjoying some small talking. He gladly welcomed her intention to tell him more about the creatures of the Moors, and even started to ask a few questions about them.

When they finished, the fairy commanded her servant to tie up her gown before going spying at the castle for the afternoon. He didn’t like the idea to leave her alone at first, but she’s been fearfully persuasive.

“I don’t know how to tie the cords, Mistress,” he admitted shamefully.

That wasn’t really surprising. Being a bird, how could he know about it? However, he should have learnt somehow, because she remembered he did tie up her gown when she was unconscious.

“Didn’t you do it already?” she asked him, puzzled.

“Yes, but it took me a lot of time, and I couldn’t do it again. Besides, it was really messy.”

She sighed. Well, it was a fact: he still had everything to learn about being a human. She neglected to teach him things on this matter because of her bad condition, but from now on, she intended to take better care of him. He deserved it after everything he was doing for her. Not to mention, if he truly wanted to stay with her, the more he knew, the more useful he would be.   
She suddenly realised that was going to take a huge amount of time for her to teach him everything he needed to know: making a fire, cooking, swimming, and so much more. But the truth was, she didn’t mind spending time with him in his human form now. On the contrary, she found it quite pleasant.

“All right, I’ll show you.” She said, as two black ribbons appeared in her hand. 

“Really? Thank you!” 

He really was grateful. She couldn’t imagine how hard it was not to know things that appeared as simple as that for other humans. It reminded him every time that he didn’t belong with ravens anymore, and that he would never belong with humans either. But when she was close to him and shared things like now or even last night, it didn’t matter, because he knew the only one he wanted to belong with was her.

He let her tug his right ankle closer to her. She circled it with one of the ribbons and handed him the other.

“Look carefully and do the same with yours,” she simply ordered, waiting for him to mimic her actions.

He obeyed, and watched scrupulously every one of her movements while she showed him, trying not to be distracted by the tickling of her fingers against his ankle. She then untied her ribbon and did it again, this time stopping at every step for him to catch up. After a few minutes, he managed to make a proper knot.

“Good. Now if you did it well, it should untie itself by pulling one of the long cords.”

He pulled it slowly and the knot untied itself. He raised its gaze to look at her with marvelled eyes. “It worked! Did you see that?” He stated excitedly.

She chuckled and nodded, “Yes, Diaval. It was a very nice knot,” she praised.

She proceeded to untie the other ribbon, but he stopped her by moving his ankle away. 

“Will you let me try with yours?” he inquired, almost shyly.

She eyed him a minute and moved her own ankle right before his hands without a word. The fairy watched him closely tie the ribbon around her, head high and with pride on her face. She didn’t know what that meant for him exactly, but she didn’t… well, disliked the idea of being connected to him that way.   
When he finished, she took a second to look at the lovely knot and put her legs back together. 

“Good. Now, do my gown,” she ordered, coming back to her senses.

She turned slightly to give him access to her back. A few days ago, she would have preferred torture over this, but she was now relieved to be able to trust him with this.   
The raven turned man tightened the laces and tied them into a knot.

“I did it, Mistress!” he exclaimed at once.

She chuckled at his childishness. Of course he did it. Ravens were very smart birds, after all.   
She was glad she taught him. This kind of exercises would help his finger’s dexterity to grow. She remembered the first day they met: he could barely move them. 

The fairy turned to him “Clever bird,” she said, curving her lips up a little. “Now go,” she added with a flick of her hand. 

An instant later he was back to his original form, flying in mid-air. He knew he was supposed to fly off to the castle, but instead, he landed before her and cawed. 

“What?” She asked flatly, looking down at him.

He cawed again, and landed on her shoulder. Before she could do anything, the raven rubbed his head against her cheek and flew off of the window.

Maleficent watched him fly away until he disappeared into the sky. She touched her cheek, right where he stroked her skin with his soft feathers, and she couldn’t help but smile. Such a good pet, and such a good friend, she thought.


	7. Warm and Comfy

Diaval returned at the ruins an hour before night. The fairy changed him into his human self, listened to his report and hastily sent him grab some food and water. She didn’t want him to be out after nightfall, especially within those woods. If something was to happen to him, she wouldn’t be able to help and she hated that thought.  
When he got back, they ate together on the bed once again, and he proudly showed her the herbs he had found to brew another balm for her back. 

“Speaking of which, I have to apply it before bedtime,” he reminded her nervously.

Great, thought Maleficent with irony. He could never remember to cover his mouth with his hand while yawning, but that he remembered. She just didn’t have the will to go through the trouble of arguing with him again. Things hadn’t gone that bad last time, and if it could get her to her feet faster, she wouldn’t object. She nonetheless hoped they wouldn’t have to endure this on a daily basis.

“Do you have to do it every day?” she inquired. 

“Yes, at least until the infection is gone,” he said, sitting back next to her on the bed with the balm. “After that, the healer fairy told me you would brew another balm that ease the pain to apply when it’s too painful.”

So as soon as her life wouldn’t be endangered by the wounds, the choice belonged to her. That was acceptable. She wasn’t sure she would be willing to put aside her pride and ask for the balm, though, but she trusted him to notice when she was in pain and talk her into it. He was a very perceptive bird. As for the balm he talked about, it was pretty easy to brew, and the herbs needed for it were very common. 

“Alright,” she finally said, shifting her sitting position a little to let him access her back.

She noticed he was unlacing her gown with trembling fingers, in very slow motions. The fairy remembered how hard it had been for him to confront her stumps last time, and she wondered if the same thing was going to happen again. She felt him parting the fabric gently and waited for his touch, but it didn’t come. After a minute, she turned around.

He was looking down, taking deep breaths. He didn’t want to cry again. It felt so gross and stupid. He didn’t want his mistress to think that of him.

“Diaval? Are you going to be ok?” she asked in concern.

He raised his head to look at her with tormented eyes. The raven turned man ended up answering her with another question: “Mistress, how do humans stop crying?” 

She smiled. Truth is, she was expecting something like that. Crying must have been a very distressing experience for him. It was only normal he didn’t want to go through that again.

“Most of the time, they can’t. It takes a lot of will and inner strength to avoid crying. The best advice I can give you is to think about something else,” she explained quietly.

He lowered his head again, before replying, “I don’t know if I can do that.” 

It didn’t matter anyway, he thought at once. He would cry but at least she would heal, and that was the most important. But suddenly, a thought struck him. He raised his gaze to her and he found himself speaking before thinking, “How…”

He stopped, remembering it was not his place to ask such things.

“Speak your mind, Diaval,” she encouraged him.

“How do you manage? How come you never cry? How are you so strong about it?” he asked, his voice filled with admiration. 

She liked his tone. It made her feel like she was still amazingly brave and strong. To be honest, since her wings were stolen, she had always thought of herself as weak. Both because she hadn’t see Stefan’s betrayal coming and because of what was left of her now. She never expected she would find someone that made her feel so different from that.

Their eyes locked, and she answered him with a weighty voice, “You shouldn’t try to mimic me on this. You are too kind to be messed up by such emotions.”

The resolve in her voice convinced him not to insist.

“Ok then. I’ll try to think about something else.”

She nodded and turned around, exposing her back to him once more. She was kind of hoping he would start low like the other time. She could have asked for it, but that would be conceding she liked his touch, and it was out of the question to let him know he had such a power over her.  
She barely managed not to moan when she felt his hands on her lower back. She enjoyed it even more this time as the pain had lessened. 

As for Diaval, he grew a liking to touching her and kept massaging low, only to feel her bare skin against his fingers a little longer. He had thought she would get mad at him for staying this long on the same spot and was paying close attention to her reaction, but she didn’t seem to get annoyed, and she didn’t protest either.  
The two of them shared a very pleasurable moment, but eventually, he had to reach the infected area encircling the stumps. He applied some extra balm, hoping her scars would heal faster and that it would be less painful that way. Her body tensed the second he touched the stumps and she took a sharp breath. The lump in his throat was growing and he tried to think about something else, but his eyes and thoughts were drawn to her ripped wings. 

She turned to face him as soon as he had finished tying the knot of her gown. A few tears were silently rolling down his face. He smiled at her genuinely to let her know he was ok, and she smiled back. 

Outside, the sun was long gone, and the only thing lightning the room was a single candle on the rock next to the bed. Maleficent blew it out and pushed the blanket to lie down in the bed. She settled on one side of it and looked up at him.

“Come,” she simply said.

Her back was still aching and she wanted him close. She had noticed yesterday how his arms around her seemed to soothe her pain and ease her mind, even though the situation was still kind of disturbing for her.

He docilely obeyed, lying down on his back next to her. She pulled the blanket on top of them and proceeded to cuddle up against him.

“Hold me,” she whispered to his ear when she noticed he was hesitating.

The first time they cuddled, he held her because he was responding to her embrace. He couldn’t make the first move on his mistress without her asking. It just didn’t feel right.  
He slowly circled her waist with his arms, pulling her gently to his chest. 

She let out a contented sigh and moved her face forward to the crook of his neck. Like the day before, she had one arm resting on his chest and the other under his nape. The fairy was a little sleepy, but forced her mind to do some thinking in order to stay awake. Even if she trusted him, she wasn’t ready to give up willingly on slumber just yet.  
Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind, and she called for him.

“Diaval?” 

He answered with a little groan while yawning. 

Maleficent held back a deep sigh as he – yet again – forgot to cover his mouth.

“I hope you know this doesn’t mean we’re going to sleep like this all the time,” she pointed out rather coldly.

That was a point she had to clarify with him, so he wouldn’t see too much into those stolen moments. To be honest, she liked being in his arms, but she didn’t know if she could afford that kind of closeness with him, as it would never be more than a way to get comforted for her. She didn’t want him to imagine it could lead to something more, because there was absolutely no way that would happen. 

“Don’t worry Mistress, the nest you made me is also very warm and comfy,” he answered with an understanding voice.

He seemed to accept the situation quite well, so she dropped the stern look and her features relaxed.

“Speaking of which, I was considering moving your nest up to my tree. What do you think?”

“Sounds great. That way you won’t have to yell at me when you need me.”

At this, she raised her gaze to meet his.

“I never yelled at you,” she protested with an outraged look.

“You sure did, Mistress. It actually took me two weeks to understand you weren’t mad at me all the time,” he explained.

Hmm, maybe she did, thought the fairy. However, she hated to lose an argument, even if she was wrong.

“No,” she insisted with a firm voice. But then her tone lightened, and she added, “I only spoke… rather loudly.”

Diaval looked at her, totally stunned. Was she joking? She almost never joked before. He studied her face closely, and at the dim light of the moon, could catch a glimpse of amusement in her eyes. He then chuckled lightly, and her lips curled up into a peaceful smile. That was a good one, he thought.

A serene smile appeared on his face as well. He was glad to see her so light-hearted, and he liked holding her. He didn’t remember feeling this good before and was utterly relishing the moment. 

He was assuming, even without her telling him, that this wouldn’t last, that it happened only because of unusual circumstances. But something was bugging him about the way she said it, and he had to be sure.

“Mistress? Does that mean we’re never going to sleep like this again?”

She remained silent for a while, choosing her words carefully, then let out a deep sigh and finally answered, “I’m… not sure. I have to think about it.”

Her servant looked at her, agape. Was she really considering doing it again? A warm feeling went through his chest, and he breathed shakily. That was more happiness than he could handle.

The fairy felt the change in his breathing and even though she wasn’t sure what had caused it, she tried to lighten the mood. 

“So… You feel warm and comfy?” she asked, amused.

“Sure,“ he said at once. “You?”

She held him tighter. 

“Very,” she breathed into his neck.


	8. The Agreement

The fairy tried to not fall asleep this time again, but she dozed off less than an hour after her servant. 

When she woke up, he was still fast asleep, and the growing light of the room indicated to her that the sun was just beginning to rise. She rolled from his chest to her side, and watched him more closely. His arms hadn’t moved during the night, and were still around her. His face was peaceful and his eyes seemed to move under his eyelids. He must be dreaming, she thought with amusement. Her hand was still on his chest, and she started to stroke him in slow motions with her thumb. She was trying to figure out a way for this to happen again. It should involve strict regulations. She spent about an hour thinking this through and making up the perfect rules. 

After that, she let her mind wander and noticed her hand had worked its way to his hair. Instinctively, she thought about removing it, but she ended up combing his dark locks absent-mindedly with her fingers, scratching his scalp every now and then.

A few minutes later, Diaval woke up with a moan and leaned into her touch.

“So you do like preening in the morning,” he teased with a sleepy voice.

She brought back her hand to his chest and narrowed her eyes at him.

“Or you could just say ‘good morning’, like a normal person,” she taunted sharply.

“Good morning, Mistress,” he conceded with a soft smile.

She smiled back and snuggled more comfortably against him.

“Good morning, my pet.”

He raised his hand to arrange his messy hair, but felt something unusual.

“Hey, what did you do to my hair?” he inquired, holding a strand of intertwined hair.

She took a peek at the lock he was holding and simply answered, “I braided them.”

His brows furrowed. He had never seen anything like that before. 

“Why? Is that magic? Can you undo it?”

The fairy sighed at his cluelessness, but replied anyway, “I got bored. No and yes.”

She reached for his hair, brushed his hand away and untied the braid.

“There. Do you want me to teach you?” she asked with impish eyes.

“Sure!” he exclaimed happily.

He liked it when she took the time to teach him things. It felt like she was taking care of him, and that was something he truly missed during their first months together. Not that she never took care of him or anything, but not as much as she was doing now.

“Ok, then. Sit down and help me out,” she commanded.

They sat against the wall, legs and shoulders touching slightly, and Diaval used the pillow to support his mistress’ back without causing her pain. He spotted at once the black feather that was lying under the pillow all this time and put it next to him. The sight of black feathers had always reassured him when he was in human form, and from what he saw yesterday, that was the same for his mistress.

Suddenly, he noticed something weird and pulled his ankle out of the blanket.

“Wait. What happened to my ribbon?”

“It vanished. I can’t create physical objects for too long,” she explained. 

Another thing he didn’t know about her. Her magic seemed very complicated. He wondered if one day he could fully understand it.

“Alright, we’ll practice with my hair. It will be easier for you,” she said, bringing him back to reality.

She chose two locks of her hair and handed him one.

“First, you have to separate it in three equal strands. Hold them like this,” she showed him. “That’s good. Now, don’t move and watch me.” 

She started slow to show him the movements and increased the rhythm. Diaval couldn’t help but marvel at the agility of her fingers. 

“There’s no way my fingers can do that,” he whispered to himself.

“Nonsense. It is very easy. Even a dog could do it,” she teased, undoing the braid.

The raven turned man chuckled at that and watched her closely, mimicking her movements each time she stopped for him to catch up. It didn’t take him long to understand how it worked, and he ended up performing a lovely little braid on his mistress, which began close to her earlobe. He even managed to entangle into it the black feather he was keeping. 

“It’s rather nice,” she concluded, brushing over the little braid.

Her fingers lingered on the feather and it appeased her instantly. She was dearly missing the touch, even the smell, of feathers. That was why she patted Diaval so often when he was in his original form. 

“I’m glad you like it, Mistress. Thank you for teaching me that.”

She nodded at him once. Now, she had to find a manner to approach the awkward subject she wanted to discuss with him. She was totally averted to go through that, but if she wanted to keep using this disconcerting ability of his to comfort her, it was the only way.

“Diaval, I’ve done some thinking in regards of what you asked me yesterday,” the fairy informed him with an even voice.

That was good, she thought. Starting by giving him the impression she only considered the question because he asked for it. 

She ignored his puzzled eyes and proceeded: “As a matter of fact, I’m willing to let this happen again, but only under my terms. Does it seems acceptable to you?” 

The raven turned man looked at her open-mouthed for a few seconds. The wonderful emotions he had felt every time they slept in each other’s arms... It was going to happen again! He had no clue how often she planned on letting him sleep with her, but frankly, he didn’t care. He was ready to wait for as long as she would decide to feel that again. 

Remembering she was waiting for an answer, he managed to close his mouth, only to blurt out: “Y-Yes, of course, Mistress. What are your terms?”

“It will only happen when I decide it. You won’t ask for it, nor initiate anything of the sort. You will wait for my impulse before making any moves towards me.”

He nodded. It seemed perfectly logical to him. Until now, he never considered doing otherwise, and that wasn’t about to change.

“It will only happen on the bed. I don’t want you to mention what happened or may happen on the bed as soon as we leave it, to me or anyone else. Also, what happens on the bed won’t change your behaviour toward me when we’re not on the bed.”

He nodded again, assuming she was referring both to this bed and the nest she owned back at home. This rule wouldn’t be so difficult to follow either. 

“It will only happen to comfort me. It will never evolve into something more than that, so you must banish from your mind any thoughts you may have about it meaning more. It will never happen. Never,” she stated with a fierce voice.

He nodded again, even though he wasn’t certain what she meant by “meaning more”. 

However, something was bothering him with that last condition, and he had to ask before agreeing to her terms. He didn’t want to push his luck nor be seen as ungrateful, but it was now or never, and she seemed to be in a good mood.

“What about me? What if I need comfort sometimes?”

She eyed him. “I didn’t think of that.” 

She quickly realised that was true: he too would need comfort sometimes. After all, everything started because she wanted to comfort him. The question was, will she be so kind as to care about him? 

“I will take your needs into consideration as well,” she finally said. “But that doesn’t change the fact that you won’t ask for it. Are we clear?” She inquired, brows rising.

Her servant nodded again. He wasn’t sure if she would be able to know when he would need comfort, but wasn’t stupid enough to point it out directly.

“I trust you to notice when I’ll need comfort, then.” 

“And I trust you to not hide your feeling nor amplify them to make me feel pity.” She had a menacing tone in her voice.

She sincerely hoped he wouldn’t get too stupid by trying to take advantage of the situation, or she would have to stop the whole cuddling-for-comfort thing. Something she didn’t want to, to be honest. She liked the perspective of having a way to make the pain go away, even for a short amount of time.

“Alright. We have an agreement,” he cut off her thoughts with a slight smile.

Their eyes locked and her lips curled up a little, “It appears we have.”

Maleficent refrained from sighing in relief. That was done. She was glad he agreed to do this for her without too many demands, otherwise she was pretty sure she would have backed off. She really wasn’t comfortable with the situation, and she wasn’t sure were she was dragging them with those stolen moments together, but she didn’t care. It made the pain go away. It felt good. That was something she wouldn’t even have dreamed of feeling again after Stefan stole her wings, and she was ready to do what it took to feel this again.

Unconsciously, her body relaxed and leaned onto his, and before she could realize what she was doing and retract; he had leaned back on her. That was fair, she thought. He only responded to her impulse, just like she instructed him to do. The fairy placed her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. It definitely felt good.


	9. Back Home

A couple of hours before sunset, Maleficent and Diaval finally reached their cliff. The fairy had one arm around her servant’s neck, and was holding a bag with her free hand. The raven turned man was clasping at her hand to hold her up, while his other arm was tightly clenched around her waist. They were walking slowly but steadily.

“I can see your tree, Mistress!” he exclaimed cheerfully. 

The journey had been long and exhausting. If not for him, he knew it had been for her. She was panting heavily and he could feel her leaning more and more onto him. It would have been much easier to carry her, but he knew she was far too proud for that. 

She lifted her gaze only to look at her home with relieved eyes. Finally, she thought. She didn’t know how much longer she would have been able to keep on. The pain in her back was barely bearable. Maybe she should have waited another day or two before starting such a long trip, as Diaval wisely suggested. However, she grew tired of staying in bed – if one could call the hard-like-rock cot she had to rest in a bed. Besides, she truly hated those awful walls and wanted to go back to her nest.

They both sat on the huge knotted roots of the single tree standing on the cliff. After losing her wings, Maleficent had modelled its trunk and branches to form a light crook on its middle, and arranged moss and leaves to make a proper nest. She didn’t trust her hammock suspended over the void anymore. She felt like she would fall off and kill herself at the slightest move. 

Now she slept in this new nest, and if she wanted to occasionally welcome Diaval in it, she would have to make it a little bigger, she thought as she looked at it. She waited to catch her breath and proceeded at once to work her magic on the majestic tree.

“You will sleep with me tonight, Diaval. That way, I will be sure your beautiful self fits in my little nest,” she teased.

He looked at her with a smile and figured she used what may look like a compliment in a hidden manner to thank him for helping her along the way. Or maybe she was just mocking him. He wasn’t sure to fully comprehend just yet this cryptic human’s habit of saying something and meaning something entirely different. 

Nonetheless, he couldn’t ignore the taunt and answered on the very same tone, “Does that mean I’m fat or anything?”

He was sure he saw the shadow of a smile crossing her features only for a second, while she was watching intently at the growing trunk. She did not smile often, but before he saved her life, she used to never smile at all. He figured that was a bit of an improvement. Whatever was the reason beneath it, he couldn’t help but feel hope. Hope that she would heal and find the light once again. Hope that maybe he could help her get better. 

“Diaval?” she called, cutting him off of his thoughts. “You will go to the castle now. Oh, and don’t forget to bring back my staff.”

He had neglected to take it when she passed out on the forest, a few days ago. Fortunately, he had assured her he remembered the exact location and would be able to find it in no time.

“Of course, Mistress,” he said at once. He had answered out of habit, but remembered she wasn’t having her best day. “Are you sure you won’t need me or anything?”

He knew she could take care of herself and all, but he was still shaken about how she had left herself dying, and still couldn’t understand why. Maybe it wasn’t much and she would be ok now, but he wasn’t sure. He didn’t know her well enough for that yet. She was very good at hiding her feelings and he only started to see through her. That was something he had vowed to master, as he had vowed to stay by her side and help her in any way he could.

During his pondering, the fairy had emptied the bag at their feet. They had gathered food, water and herbs during their journey home. 

“I will be pretty busy, don’t worry,” she said while sorting the herbs on the grassy floor. “Just bring me some twigs to start a fire before going.”

As soon as he had put together a big enough pile of dead sticks next to her, she told him to be back by nightfall. She changed him into his original form and watched him disappear into the sky, wondering if she should have sent him to the castle, in the end. He already helped her walk all day and should be tired. She usually never asked him to work this much.

Suddenly, she wondered what he would do if she was to give him a day off. Maybe he had some relatives or raven friends to go visit? She never did it before, but perhaps she should consider granting him some free time once in a while. He was undoubtedly a very good servant and it was the least she could do for him. 

While he was gone, she brewed the two different balms, both for healing and painkilling. After that, she moved Diaval’s nest to her tree. She chose him a good spot, where he could overview the Moors by looking down and gaze at the stars by looking up. 

By the time the darkness of the night replaced the last beams of day, she had cleaned herself, changed her clothes to something more comfortable and cooked a hot meal for the both of them. She didn’t cook often, especially for him, but tonight she wanted to please her pet. Her pet-friend, she corrected with a smile.

The raven finally came back and landed to her right with her staff, before flying off to her left. He stretched out his arms with a moan when she gave him his human form and sat down next to her.

“You’re late,” she scolded, taking a look at the ebony stick that once was just a mere twig.

“Yes, sorry. I’ve had trouble finding your staff in the dark,” he said apologetically.

He thanked her when she handed him a large bowl, before peering inside with a funny face.

“Soup?” he whined.

He liked vegetables, but when it was cooked that way, the taste was rarely the one expected, and he didn’t like that. The only thing that could cover it up was-

“I’ve added some beetles in yours,” she pointed out with an even voice.

He smiled widely at her, took a sip and let out a humming sound. She knew him so well.

“Best mistress ever,” he whispered, loud enough for her to hear.

Her lips curled up a little and they ate in silence. She chose to let him eat without inquiring about what was up at the castle. When he brought back important news, he used to tell her right away, anyway. Therefore, she expected uninteresting banalities from tonight’s report and didn’t ask for it.

“I’m giving you a day off tomorrow,” she announced after a while, piling up their empty bowls on the ground.

“A day off? What do you mean?” he asked suspiciously.

“You won’t have to go to the castle.”

His eyes widened, “Really? Thank you, Mistress!”

Spying was so dull sometimes… Besides, he didn’t like to spend so much time close to humans - especially that human. The raven turned man never hated anyone before, even the farmers and dogs that hunted him at times, but from the moment he understood what had happened to his mistress, the only thing he felt towards Stefan was pure, wild, merciless hatred. He figured she was listening to his reports, waiting for an opportunity to take revenge on him, and when the time would come, he would fully support her. Even though he never was one to enjoy the perspective of hurting others, he knew he would relish this moment.

The fairy didn’t go through the trouble of mentioning that he didn’t have to take care of her either, because she was pretty sure he would say he didn’t mind, anyway.

They stayed silent for a while, before she gave in to her curiosity, “You don’t like going to the castle?” 

“I don’t mind flying to the castle and reporting to you, but spying on stupid humans, that’s really boring. Today, for example, the nasty one was taking dance lessons to attend to a royal ball or something. You should have seen him swearing every time he stepped on the poor teacher’s foot. By the end of the lesson he couldn’t even dance through the two first bars of the song, that was hopeless.”

She didn’t even wanted to know where he had learned what a “bar” was. She wasn’t sure herself of what it was. Surely, he had witnessed some other lessons of some sort. Making him spy on the castle had somehow taught him lots of non-useful stuff, but it was for the best. The more he knew, the more useful he would be.

“Could you?” She inquired, truly curious. 

She always wondered what was all the fuss about dancing. The other fairies here in the Moors danced while flying, but she had never been able to experience it since she was much too different from the others. Maybe at some point, Diaval could enlighten her about it.

“Well, I’m not sure. I never tried.”

He yawned loudly while adding, “But maybe I could show you some other time?” 

The fairy guided his hand to cover his mouth with a sigh. She gave in to the urge of yawning back and conceded, “Yes, we need some sleep. Help me get to my nest.”

A few minutes later, they were sitting in the nest, and Diaval was unlacing his mistress’ gown. 

In the meantime, Maleficent closed the branches of the tree around them, like they were curtains. She did so every night since her wings were stolen, because she was so ashamed of what she had become she didn’t want anyone to see her off-guard.

She sighed. What she feared the most revealing anyone had now become a habit between her and her servant. She didn’t mind him watching or even touching her bare back anymore. The distance she wanted to keep between them had been crushed down, and there was nothing she could have done about it. Now he knew all about her sorrow, and she was letting him share her pain almost naturally, even though they’ve only met three months ago. That was crazy. Her life had taken such an unexpected turn. Nothing went as planned, and she didn’t know what to think about it.

“The infection is almost gone, Mistress. I think tomorrow will be the last time I bother you with the balm,” he said cheerfully, dipping his fingers into the newly made mixture.

“I may require your help in the future, if the pain gets too annoying,” she remembered him stiffly.

Diaval didn’t believe that, not after the scene they’ve been through for her to accept it the first time. He was pretty sure she wouldn’t want him to do it again if it wasn’t absolutely necessary.

“Will you?” he inquired, his voice laced with amusement.

She didn’t answer, but he wasn’t expecting her to, anyway. Eventually, his wetted fingers came in contact with her delicate skin. He was much more comfortable doing this than before, especially since he wasn’t causing her pain at every move. Right now, he was even wondering if there was the slightest chance she could appreciate the feeling. He knew he did. Her skin was so soft. The raven turned man always thought the velvetiness of feathers had no equals, but now he realised he had been terribly mistaken. 

He bit back the lump in his throat when he reached the stumps. He was determined not to cry this time, and tried his best to think about something else, just like she told him. The sobs seemed to pull away the moment he focused his attention on the silkiness of her skin under his fingers. 

Maleficent turned around to look at him when he had laced back her gown. She had to admit it, she just spent the most delicious moment in a very long while. Her back wasn’t aching too bad, causing his touch to feel even more exquisite than the two first times. She didn’t even care how bold he got, and didn’t stop him from massaging her nape and shoulders after he had finished with her stumps. 

Her lips curled up a little when she noticed he managed to keep the tears at bay. 

“Lie down,” she demanded in a whisper.

He obeyed and got under the cover, opening it for her to join him. She scooted closer, leaned on his form and murmured to his hear, “Open your arms, my pet.”

He did so, encouraged by her gentle tone, and she cuddled against his lying body. She felt him sighing in contentment as he held her close into his warmth. There it was, the inexplicable feeling of safety his embrace never failed to provide her. She inhaled deeply into his neck, relishing the moment. She liked that far more than she should, but to hell with that. After everything she went through these past three months, she deserved a little bit of relief.

An awkward silence followed. They just began to realise the implications behind the fact that they were sharing the fairy’s nest. It was new and almost frightening to both of them. Before, they had slept in a place that could be qualified as neutral, but now, she was sharing her nest, her home with him, and felt even more exposed. As for him, he wasn’t really comfortable sleeping in a place he had been absolutely forbidden to go for so much time.

Feeling the growing tension, Diaval assumed that the only way to lighten the mood would be to talk. Even if it wasn’t, it couldn’t be worse, anyway, “We seem to be fitting very well in your nest, Mistress, don’t you think?”

She looked up at him, noticing he seemed even stiffer than her. She let her hand climb up to his scalp, entangling her fingers in his hair, and stroked gently. It relaxed them at once.

“Yes, we do.”

She heard him purr, and felt his head leaning on hers as he was trying to give her better access. She leaned back instinctively, and the warmth in her chest grew wider. 

When she was about to give up on slumber, she heard him speak, “I see you moved my nest, Mistress. Thank you.”

Glad he prevented her from falling asleep that early, she yawned and replied, “You’re welcome, birdy.” 

The fairy struggled to not let her eyes close themselves. She didn’t want to doze off before him, just in case. Therefore, she was kind of hoping he would keep talking, if only to keep her awake. 

As always, he did everything she needed him to, even though he wasn’t aware of it, “But Mistress, why didn’t you build my nest on your tree in the first place?”

She looked at him thoughtfully, and didn’t talk for a good minute. 

Diaval feared he had pushed too far, remembering a little late that she didn’t like it when he questioned her actions, but finally, her stern expression faded and her gaze lowered.

“Because I didn’t want you to see or hear me if I had a nightmare,” she said softly

At the end, she realised it wasn’t that big a deal revealing this to him. Now that he had seen the worst part of her agony, she wasn’t that worried about letting him know about this too.

She noticed his puzzled look, and frowned at him in order to make him speak his mind.

“I don’t know what a nightmare is, Mistress,” he confessed, a little bit nervous.

Whatever it was, he could guess by her tone that it didn’t seem to be something very funny. He was hoping that wouldn’t be too serious and could be dealt with. They already had so many problems that needed to be solved.

“It’s a bad dream,” she started, cutting him off of his thoughts. “When you sleep, sometimes, you feel like you’re awake, confronted with awful situations, often your worst fears, and have no control on what is happening. It can be very intense, and make one’s move violently and even scream during sleeping.”

She felt him stiffen at her words, and she wondered if that ever happened to him. Surely not, as he spent most of his nights in his raven form. Birds couldn’t dream, and that was for the best. She certainly wouldn’t want any bird, especially him, to go through that.

“That’s frightening,” he pointed out after a while. “What am I supposed to do if that happens? Shall I wake you up?”

“Yes, I guess.”

He tightened his grasp on her lying form, as if he wanted to protect her from something. He wished it wouldn’t happen to her anytime soon. Tonight he would be there, anyway, and could wake her up if necessary. As for the nights he wouldn’t sleep with her, his nest was close enough for him to hear if there was anything unusual going on.

Suddenly, he realised something: she had nightmares, which must mean that she had fears. That was disturbing. He couldn’t imagine his powerful mistress being afraid of something. Even when she was about to die, she was anything but. 

“Mistress? What are your nightmares about?” he inquired before thinking.

As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew he shouldn’t have asked that, and held his breath.

She managed to detain an annoyed growl. Just who did he think he was to ask her such things? 

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she snapped. 

Maleficent felt the urge to change him and send him off to his own nest, but she knew better. It would give her great satisfaction at first, but it wouldn’t be as comforting for her. When she thought about it, she didn’t really needed comfort right now, but she just didn’t want him to go. She liked the way he held her tight, and how his head was resting on hers.

“Go to sleep, now,” she added grumpily.

The raven turned man let out a shaky breath. That was close. He almost recognised the look on her face when she was too pissed to let him talk and ended up turning him into his raven form. He truly enjoyed his original form, but in his human self, he could be so much closer to her. He liked that closeness, and the way it made him feel. 

He noticed her angry gaze on him and obediently mumbled, “Yes, Mistress,” before closing his eyes.

He shifted in the nest. It was truly uncomfortable, almost worst than the bed in the ruins. After she grew it, the moss and leaves weren’t covering the whole nest anymore, and most of its bottom was just wood, now. Fortunately, she was half lying on him tonight, so she wouldn’t feel it too much. However, Diaval wondered about the nights after that. She couldn’t sleep like this. He came to slumber thinking he had to do something about it.


	10. Mischievous Pet

The first beams of sunlight were peeking at the horizon when the fairy woke up. She yawned and nuzzled into Diaval’s neck before closing her eyes again. His strong arms were still encircling her, pulling her protectively into his chest, and the last thing she wanted to do was to leave their warmth. After a while, she heard him yawn as well.

“Mistress?” he called in a hush voice.

She opened her eyes and lazily raised her gaze to meet his. The moment their eyes locked, everything around them seemed to fade. They exchanged a small smile, relishing the warm feeling spreading across them both, and before they even realised what they were doing, their noses bumped. Maleficent pulled back instantly, while the raven turned man was too stunned to react. He wasn’t really sure he understood quite well what just happened.

“Good morning,” he said, hoping to dissipate the awkwardness of the situation.

“Good morning,” she replied softly.

Her tensed body gradually relaxed, lulled by his steady heartbeat under her. She longed for a little more time with him like this, but she figured he would like to enjoy his first day off starting as soon as possible. She got off of him, rolling on her side, and raised her hand, as if to transform him.

“So, what do I change you into for your day off?” she asked, frowning at him.

Seeing the golden magic already coming from her fingers, he couldn’t help but cringe. He didn’t want her to change him so soon. Who knew when they were going to sleep together again? It could be in weeks, months, maybe even years, so he had to enjoy the moment for as long as possible.

“I was hoping I could stay with you a little bit more before getting up,“ he replied shyly.

She let her hand fall back on his chest. Well, she couldn’t say she wasn’t glad to hear that. Furthermore, he probably needed some more rest.

“Fair enough, it’s nearly dawn, anyway,” she replied casually.

“Thank you, Mistress.”

She yawned again and let out a light moan while stretching her back, arching it widely. She must have slept in a bad position, because it never ached that way. 

Next to her, Diaval thought she was absolutely lovely stretching like that. He still was holding her curvy hips, and looked at her with a smile. She was reaching for her nape in order to scratch it. He liked the way she appeared so carefree and spontaneous right now. It was like the wall she had built around her had dissipated, just for a moment. 

“Do you want me to scratch your back for you, Mistress?” he asked playfully.

She stiffened at his words and narrowed her eyes at him, hoping he wasn’t serious. By the impish sparkle in his eyes, she could say he wasn’t. However, a part of her was wondering why not give it a try? She would never be able to reach the exact place she wanted to scratch, anyway, and her sleepy mind didn’t help at all. She knew she wasn’t fully lucid, but she didn’t care. The only thing she needed to know was that his hands generally smoothed her pain. Not to mention she wished it would replace this damn mischievous expression of his by a funny face of some sort. His smugness only irritated her sometimes, and she liked seeing him dumbfounded, if only to mock him.

At the end, she fell back on top of him and closed her eyes, before saying sleepily, “Just scratch along the spine, will you?”

She smiled when she heard him gasp and could easily picture the funny face he was making. It wasn’t fair to tease a poor little bird, but it was certainly entertaining.

He nonetheless obeyed, stroking more than scratching along the hollow of her lower back through the fabric of her gown, where he was sure it didn’t hurt. The raven turned man didn’t know what got into her exactly, but it wasn’t like he had never touched her there, anyway.

“Harder, Diaval, much harder,” She said with a sigh.

He pressed two fingers on both side of her spine, a third on top of it, and went slowly up and down, increasing the pressure on her skin. He still was a little afraid of hurting her, but trusted his mistress to tell him right away if that was the case.

Almost instantly, he felt her parting lips breathing heavily into his neck, and heard her moan something he understood as, “Hmmm, yes, like this.”

She could feel his nails slowly lingering on each and every one of the vertebras on her lower back, causing a delicious sensation to go through her. Her heart was definitely racing, and her silent moans turned into light ones as he rubbed harder. Her body was going limp under his touch. How could she have been so stupid and let that happen in the first place? Now she had no control whatsoever on what was happening. She didn’t care about the consequences anymore, and just wanted him to keep going. She barely managed to not bite the soft skin of his neck in pleasure as he reached a little higher.

Under her, Diaval was in no better condition than his mistress. He could feel her lips stroking jerkily his skin as she inhaled and exhaled shakily. He could also feel her breasts pressing against his chest, at the pace of his hand on her back, causing his heart to pound uncontrollably. 

Before things get to escalate too much, he reached the spot between her stumps and they twitched awkwardly, causing her to jump up a little. The pair regained control of themselves as soon as the little incident ruined the moment.

“Mistress! I’m so sorry, are you ok? What happened? What did I do?” he urged, panicking.

She let out a deep sigh and her body loosened up against his. That was a sensation she hadn’t experienced in a very long while.

“It’s nothing Diaval, just a little reflex. When pushing right between my wings, they used to flap. It’s not even painful.”

“Oh.” 

Another thing he didn’t know about her. That was interesting. He mused for a moment about how close it was to being ticklish. However, people were generally laughing when they were being tickled, and his mistress never laughed. Well, maybe she would if he was bold enough to try it again? He never saw her laughing before, but he certainly wanted to. This thought in mind, he couldn’t help himself and did it again.

She let out an annoyed sigh after jumping up again. She assumed he didn’t do it on purpose – he wouldn’t be that stupid – but when his fingers came in contact with her soft spot again, she slapped his chest violently.

“Will you stop?” she growled into his neck.

The fairy had to fight hard with her inner self to no give up on anger. He probably wanted to scratch her spine again and didn’t reach high enough. As if to prove her wrong, he made her stumps twitch again. 

This time, she rose instantly and glanced at him with ferocious eyes.

“Diaval, that’s enough!” 

Maleficent watched him froze with a glint of satisfaction in her eyes. Her sudden outburst seemed to have reminded him she had more than one way to make him suffer if needed. However, her eyes rounded into saucers when he did the most unexpected thing ever. He smirked. Hell, he dared smirking at her! Somehow, his mischievous face woke a dormant part of her, and her eyes eventually mirrored his impish ones. She felt his hand climbing up to her back again. She knew what was coming, and if he wanted to play the bothersome one, she’d be ready.

“No, Diaval. Noooo,” she warned, frowning at him knowingly.

Her reaction was immediate, before his hand could even reach the middle of her back, she had slapped him with the biggest and muddiest heap of moss that was scattered across the nest. With a victorious huff, she rolled on her side, looking at his muddy face with a defying expression.

“Awwww, Mistress, that’s awfully gross!” he whined, withdrawing an arm from her waist to wipe his face clean with his sleeve.

“You started it,” she pointed out sternly. 

That was true, but he was glad he did. He didn’t know if it was because she was still sleepy or because it happened in the nest, but the situation ended up being quite fun, and he was pretty sure she enjoyed it as well. He almost recognised a glint of amusement in her emerald eyes.

A few seconds later, his face was quite clean, but his sleeve was dirty, and he cursed himself when he realised he couldn’t hold her until he would have cleaned it up as well. He dropped his arm away from her with a sigh. Maybe if he showed some remorse, she would get merciful and use her magic to help him out, so they could cuddle again?

“Sorry Mistress, but ravens are playful by nature,” he said apologetically.

She eyed him from the corner of her eyes but didn’t move.

“And you have to be playful so early in the morning?” she spat, her voice letting show her deep irritation.

“Of course, or else you would change me right away and ruin all the fun. Did you enjoy slapping my poor self with that huge muddy stack of moss?” he inquired, as a little smirk appeared on his face.

“Much more than you think,” she replied with a devilish grin.

He laughed, and their playful eyes locked for a moment. She was such fun in the nest. He wished things could go this smoothly more often between them.

As for her, she was kind of enjoying their slight bickering at the end. Even though she didn’t like to be teased, she was absolutely sure she would always have the upper hand on her servant, leaving him with that helpless look on his face she found so funny.

She yawned and rolled back on him. She was still pretty tired, or at least, she wasn’t ready to leave the nest just yet. Golden magic escaped from her hand, cleaning Diaval’s sleeve, and it didn’t took him long to snake his arm back around her.

“Do you want me to do it again?” he asked after a moment.

She raised an eyebrow at him, wondering what he was up to, this time. In case he hadn’t noticed, she had quite a temper, and even if she had remained pretty calm this morning, that didn’t mean she would keep her composure indefinitely.

“What? Pissing me off? Yes, _please_ do that so I’ll have an excuse to throw you off of my nest!” she threatened fiercely.

He chuckled at her impulsive reaction. Normally, he would have feared her tone, but he knew she was only half serious. Besides, he had no intention of pushing further. She hadn’t laughed, but he was sure she had enjoyed.

“No, I meant scratching your back. I promise I’ll stop annoying you,” he assured her with a warm smile.

She let out a huff sound. As if he had a choice. It was either that or he would have to learn how to fly in human form, she thought ironically. 

The fairy sighed and answered him on a casual voice, “Alright.”

A few minutes later, her hand had made its way to her servant’s dark locks, and she was rubbing his nape gently. The shadow of a smile crossed her features as he leaned his cheek against her palm. She was pretty sure he would purr right now if only he could.

She closed her eyes and let her body melt against his while he was stroking her back absent-mindedly. She just wished all the mornings could be as nice.


	11. Getting Cozier

The sun was sinking into the horizon when Maleficent headed back to the rowan tree. The day had been exhausting. Before her wings were stolen, it was a delight to patrol around the Moors. She flew wildly and took pride in all the chatters her presence triggered. Now she was forced to walk slowly and couldn’t stand the whisperings behind her back. She knew it was either about pity or revulsion, if not mockery. She chose to trust Stefan, ignoring the advice of the fair folks, and now that she had been proved wrong, she couldn’t face them anymore. Stefan didn’t only take her wings and her heart that day, he also created a huge gap between her and the very people that raised her. Her friends. Her family.

She hastened her pace, hoping that would help her escape from her dark thoughts, and spotted Diaval on one of the lower branches of her – well, their tree, she mentally corrected. He was preening his plumage meticulously. He surely spent the whole day lazing off, she thought with bitterness. She wished she could do the same once in a while, but with her responsibilities toward the Moors, and the slowness in which she had to accomplish her duties, it didn’t seem quite possible.

The raven cawed at her as she approached, and waited for his mistress to sit on one of the huge roots to join her on the ground. They ate together the food they had gathered in a comfortable silence, watching the colourful sky as the sun was setting. Every now and then, Maleficent would stroke absent-mindedly her raven’s feathers, causing him to either purr in contentment or rub his feathery head against her palm. It was so easy to be around him. He’s never been afraid of her, or even distant. He acted nonchalantly, even though the effort she was making every day to appear fearful and dangerous. From any other, it would have annoyed her to the point she would have tormented the poor creature, but from Diaval, it was kind of an enjoyment. 

The fairy stayed a few minutes deep in thoughts, watching the stars reveal themselves in the darkening sky. 

She yawned and slowly turned to face her pet, “Let’s go to sleep, Diaval.” 

The raven cawed and hopped on the ground to her lower back, rubbing it with his head, then came back in front of her and cawed again. 

The shadow of a smile crossed her features. Even in this muted form, he knew how to make himself understandable. The fairy stood up and watched as his servant took flight only to land on her staff. He was looking at her intently. She looked at him back and raised an eyebrow.

“I haven’t forgot,” she pointed out, answering his silent question.

He lowered his head deeply, either to nod or to bow before her. 

Satisfied with his humble attitude, she added in a hush voice, “Get in the nest. I’ll come in a minute.”

He obeyed at once, and preened again while waiting for her patiently. He started to have doubts about what he did today. Now that he thought about it, there was a risk she wouldn’t like it, or worse: it could be seen as a way to bribe her into sleeping with him again. He mentally scolded himself for not thinking about this before, but what was done was done. He did what he did because he cared about her. It couldn’t bring him into too much trouble, could it?

After a moment, he heard his mistress climb to join him, but he saw her freeze at the sight of the nest. 

“Wh-What happened here?” she gasped, not recognizing her precious nest.

Her gaze met her servant and she narrowed her eyes at him. It had to be him, who else? One night in her nest, and he thought he owned the place, authorizing him to change everything in her home? Who did he think he was? She trusted him enough to invite him in her nest, even to share her beloved tree with him, and that was how he thanked her?

“You did this, didn’t you?” she growled furiously.

Alarmed by the fearful glint in her eyes, the raven cawed frantically as she got into the nest. He had to explain, he had to convince her to change him so he could explain. 

She broke eye contact with him and her expression softened when she inspected his work. Without a warning, she granted him his human form, closed the branches-made curtains around them and turned back to him with a stern expression.

He transformed in the middle of a loud caw and let out a human yelp, before folding his legs in a kneeling position and bowing his head.

“Mistress, please don’t be mad. I can change it back to the way it was in no time if you don’t like it,” he said hastily.

Even if he had behaved far too bold in her opinion, she had to admit his work was rather fine, and it looked like her nest never felt this comfortable before. Considering this, she chose to give him the opportunity to justify his actions before suspending his human self over the void or performing any other form of punishment on him.

“Explain yourself this instant,” she grated between her teeth. 

Too happy to be given a chance to talk, he took a shaky breath and did as she wished, “I got really sore from sleeping in your nest the night before, and there was no way I would let you go through such an unpleasant experience tonight. I’m pretty sure it was uncomfortable just because you grew it so we could both fit in it, so in the end, it was all my fault. Therefore, I spent the day trying to fix it for you.”

A part of her liked dearly his sweet and caring words, but she eyed him suspiciously in an attempt to find out if he was lying. 

After a while, she realised his face showed nothing but pure honesty, and her expression relaxed. His story seemed accurate. She remembered now how he had grunted in pain when he got up this morning, and obviously, she couldn’t have felt it because she nearly used him as a mattress all night long.

However, something was bugging her about his gesture. Since Stefan’s betrayal, her instincts automatically associated kind attentions toward her with some sort of price she would have to pay, eventually. She had to be sure, even if it would hurt. 

“And considering you worked so hard, I guess you would like very much to sleep in here tonight?” she spat, narrowing her eyes at him.

“Well I do not see why, Mistress. You don’t seem to be needing much comfort right now, are you?” he asked innocently.

Her lips curved up slightly. There was at least one rule he had remembered. Besides, his reaction proved he didn’t have any hidden purpose behind this gift. That was nice to know.

“Why didn’t you just tell me about it?” she complained in a sigh.

“With your patrols, I figured you would have never find the time to take care of it.” 

She didn’t even try to hide the smile that slowly appeared on her face, but it was certainly because her servant hadn’t raised his head since he had started speaking so he couldn’t see it, anyway.   
He knew her well. Protecting the Moors would always be more important than her own well-being. Hopefully, she had found someone to care for her, she thought ironically. She didn’t need him, of course, but she couldn’t deny that keeping him around seemed to make things less difficult. 

At this moment, Diaval’s remorseful voice brought her back to reality.

“I know I’m not very useful to you because I’m just a bird and all, but I thought I could at least help you with your nest. I’m very sorry, Mistress, I shouldn’t have...”

“No,” she cut him off at once, far more harshly than what she intended to.

He shut his eyes and bowed deeper, expecting punishment. The raven turned man tensed as soon as he felt his mistress’ cold hand touching his cheek, but a warm feeling soon filled his chest. She stroked his skin with her thumb and gently pulled on his chin to force him to look at her.

“Pet, you had very honourable intentions and I’m not mad at you. Besides, it’s a splendid nest you made me. I must say I’m impressed.”

He positively beamed at her words, and couldn’t help but smile shyly. He was about to mumble some thanks, when she withdrew her hand from his face and added, in a more serious voice, “However, you have to understand that doing this, you broke one of the rules we agreed on yesterday.”

His brows furrowed in confusion, and he ended up asking, “The ‘what happens in the nest stays in the nest’ rule?”

“See, you remember it quite well, then why would you break our agreement? If I can’t trust you on this, there will be no more cuddling nights, do you understand?”

That was a threat she truly didn’t want to put to execution, but if there was the slightest risk the situation would go beyond her control, she had to end it. 

“Y-Yes, but… I figured… Well, what I did was in the nest, so basically, it stayed in the nest… Don’t you think?”

She looked at him for a moment, thinking this through, then her lips gradually curved up into a slight grin. His reasoning made sense, and she realised the implications behind this. She restricted their moments of closeness to the nest, and not only to their sleeping time. That meant whenever they were on the nest, she could ask him for comfort, and he would have special attentions toward her. That thought gave her a brand new perspective of the whole thing. One she immediately liked very much.

“You know what? I think you’re right,” she finally said. 

He smiled widely at her light tone. She seemed to be happy about it, and the anger that twisted her features a little bit earlier had completely disappeared. He watched her examine the soft and downy wool that covered the nest.

“So… Would you care to tell me how you did it?” She inquired, raising an eyebrow at him.

Diaval’s heart skipped a beat when he recognized an impish sparkle in her eyes. He liked it when she was being playful. It meant she was comfortable with the situation and the people around her. It meant she was comfortable right now with him, in her newly made nest.

“I brought stuff and I arranged it all. It wasn’t that complicated, really. There are two layers. The first one is made of moss and a lot of leaves and the second one is made of wool and feathers. I was thinking about making you one of these pillows made with feathers, but instead I just made the layers bigger at the top, to raise the height a little bit for your head.”

She raised her head with pride and tried her best to hide her astonishment. She was very impressed with his expertise in the area and how he managed to adapt a nest for a near human being. He really was clever when he wanted to. 

Without thinking, the fairy slowly lay down on her side in the warm fluffiness of the wool covering her nest, facing him. She closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh of pleasure. It was like sleeping on a cloud. 

“That is certainly the most comfortable nest I’ve been in,” she complimented, looking at him. “It stinks of sheep, though.”

The raven turned man cringed. He knew she would notice it, but he wasn’t sure if that would bother her – she was very close to nature after all. 

As there was nothing else he could do about it, he started apologizing, “I’m sorry Mistress, I washed the wool and then I tried to put some of my feathers in it to hide the smell, but-“

“It’s alright, Diaval. I can get used to it,” she interrupted him softly. “Besides, I’m pretty sure the smell will fade with time.” 

She wondered where he could have found the time to wash the wool above all. He succeeded in making the entire nest in less than a day, and in the form of a bird. That was pretty impressive.   
Suddenly, she remembered today was supposed to be his day off. A wave of guilt came over her. She expected him to laze off, and instead, he worked twice as hard as he usually did to make sure she would sleep well. How sweet of him. 

The fairy held back an annoyed sigh. Great, and now she was considering sleeping with him again tonight. She knew that idea was highly unwise. Neither of them needed comfort right now, and if she was to cross the line, who knew where that would lead them? Besides, a part of her wasn’t totally convinced about her decision to seek comfort in his arms, so she couldn’t take reckless decisions with this. 

However, maybe she could find a way to express him her gratitude…

“Have you tried it out already?” she asked after a moment.

“Of course not, Mistress. I wouldn’t dare lie in your nest without permission.”

She nodded in appreciation. She was glad to see he still had a lot of respect for her home, even though he spent so much time in it, lately.

“I give you my permission now. Come,” she queried, patting the empty space beside her. 

He joined her cautiously, lying down on his back. Due to the narrowness of the nest, they were very close, almost touching, but both of them seemed perfectly at ease.

“So?” she inquired with raised eyebrows.

“So I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to sleep properly with you resting on top of me, now.”

He usually slept properly with her no matter what, but he wasn’t sure how she would react if he was to tell her that the pleasure of feeling her close was outrunning by far any other discomfort he could experience. Before he could think further about all the wonderful sensation her closeness triggered in him, he saw her raise her upper body and leaned on one arm next to him. 

“We’d better give it a try, just to be sure,” she announced, locking eyes with him.

The raven turned man found himself captivated by the intensity of her gaze, but he wasn’t sure what to do next. Should he hold her? Did she just give him permission?

“Shall I-”

“Shhh,” she replied at once, leaning more closely on him. “No talking.”

That wasn’t helping. What was he supposed to do, now? Fortunately, he felt her hand on his waist before he could worry much more. He wasn’t sure to understand quite well what she wanted, but something in her eyes was pushing him to act. Slowly, hesitantly, he reached for her, and finally snaked his arms around her when she lay down on his chest. He couldn’t help but sigh in contentment as he sensed her warmth against him. He felt her nuzzling her way into his neck, followed by the familiar sensation of her breathing against his skin. 

He became sleepy within a few minutes, and noticed she had already closed her eyes. She couldn’t doze off like that. What about her treatment? Not to mention they weren’t supposed to sleep together tonight. He yawned and shook her shoulder a little bit.

“Mistress?”

To his surprise, her reaction was immediate and her fully awake emerald eyes met his already sleepy dark ones.

“Hmm?” she mumbled on a curious tone.

“I’m pretty tired. Can I just apply the balm on your back and go to my nest?” he asked, before yawning again.

Rolling her eyes, she put her own hand in front of his mouth, with an exasperated glare. Honestly, will he ever be able to cover his yawning mouth himself? She didn’t scold him, though. She knew he must be exhausted from flying and working all day in the only intention to please her. It was touching what he was ready to do for her well being, she thought while looking at him tenderly. That was the kind of little things that made her trust him a tiny bit more. However, the more she trusted him, the more she was scared. That was an issue she couldn’t prevent for now, and that was why she had to keep being in control.

The fairy untangled herself from her servant and they sat up. She reached for the balm that was in a hollow inside of the trunk, where she was keeping her things, and handed it to him. 

The dim light of the moon was just enough for him to see what he was doing. When the laces were unbound, he smiled at the sight of her back.

“Congratulations, you’re fully healed, Mistress. There are still little reddish spots, but I guess they will be gone by tomorrow,” he reassured her.

“Good work, pet,” she praised, looking at the wool while he started to massage her lower back.

He was becoming very good at this, she thought, feeling her heart racing. It was a shame she wouldn’t have the occasion to enjoy his touch anytime soon. Her muscles were melting at his firm caresses. God, it felt far too good…

“Are they all your feathers?” she asked, hoping that speaking would help her cooling off.

He followed her gaze to the numerous dark feathers that were covering the nest.

“Of course. You think I would contaminate your nest with other feathers than mine?” he said, as if the only thought of it was totally absurd. “I just went to my old nest and gathered every one I could find,” he explained. “I also thought about putting some of yours, that were lying in your hammock, but-”

“No.” she cut off at once. “Don’t.”

Maybe one day feeling them close would help, but for now, that was the last thing she needed. 

“I won’t, then,” he mumbled wistfully.

It broke his heart to think he had awoken her pain. He wished he could take her into his arms right now to protect her from it, to make her forget about everything. Instead, he put even more dedication in rubbing her skin, wishing that would distract her from her tormenting thoughts. 

The silence soon became unbearable, and Diaval hurriedly broke it, “You know, as a nest-making expert, I thought about some other improvements for your nest.”

Now she was intrigued. He had done so much already, how did he plan to improve her nest further? And why? Perhaps it was because he was a bird, that his instincts were driving him to do these kind of tasks. Or maybe the whole thing was only to thank her for allowing him into her nest. In any case, she was wondering what he was up to.

“Really? Such as?” she inquired with mild curiosity.

“Well, first I thought about bringing some fabric that would feel soft to cover the wool, maybe another blanket. That way it won’t itch or slid away if we were to move too much.” 

She raised an eyebrow, pondering over what kind of situation could possibly lead them to move that much in the nest. 

“Also, instead of twitching the branches of your tree into curtains, you could make an ivy grow at the base and make curtains with it. That would look like a cocoon-like nest. Besides, I’m pretty sure we can find some species which leaves doesn’t fall in winter. Or even glowing ones! Don’t you have something like that in the Moors? That would be fun.”

She smiled at his enthusiasm and took the time to enjoy his touch – he had just reached her favourite spot – before answering.

She had to admit it: he had very good ideas. She was far too preoccupied to have envisioned the long-term issues, like when the leaves of her tree would fall. With her faithful pet taking care of it, she would soon have the nest of a real queen. At the end, that would be the first time that something in her life had improved since Stefan took her wings. 

“Glowing ivy plants? There are some in the Moors, yes, but they’re not leafy enough to make good curtains. Besides, I’m not sure I want glowing things in my nest. It would feel too bright.”

“Oh,” he let out in a whisper.

She knew he liked glowing things a lot and could feel his disappointment, but it was her home, so the decision was hers. However, considering he would also spend some time in it, she assumed she could try to reach compromises with him in the future. That was something she intended to discuss later with him.

“But your ideas are quite good, actually,” she said, leaning into his touch when he reached her shoulders. “As a matter of fact, you will come with me tomorrow morning to look for a proper ivy plant.”

He smiled widely at her words. She was planning to do this with him. She wanted him to be involved in the construction of her nest! 

He exhaled shakily, hoping she wouldn’t hear him. He felt overjoyed, and couldn’t help himself from thinking the situation was very similar to raven mates nestling for the first time together. He never found a mate of his own, but what he shared with his mistress was the closest he ever had from having a family, and he cherished dearly every minutes he spent with her.

“Sure, Mistress,” he murmured warmly. 

He started massaging her nape, enjoying the soft sensation of her silky skin under his fingers.

“Will we have enough time so you could also show me around the Moors a little bit? Like you told me at the ruins,” he inquired hopefully.

She stayed silent for a while, thinking about it carefully. That may be bothersome but she had to show him around, so he could get to know his new home. She wasn’t sure on how he would react, though. Everything here was so different from the life he came from. There were different creatures, different plants, even different rules. Would he be able to accept the change? He looked like a man sometimes, but originally, he was a bird and was a part of nature, so things should be alright.

“No. You will come back a little earlier from the castle and we’ll do this as an evening stroll,” she announced, gathering her hair to give him better access to her nape.

“Sounds great,” he replied at once. 

He tenderly rubbed her nape and shoulders for a few more minutes, before lacing back her gown.

“That’s it, Mistress.”

She turned around and they exchanged a smile, before she changed him into his original form. He flew to his nest immediately and curled into it, facing her.

She lay down with her eyes fixed on him, through the thick curtains she had modelled. With a wisp of magic, she levitated Diaval’s nest to move it closer to her head. Then, the branches of the tree were soon bending around them both, allowing them to see each other.

“Good night, my pet. And thank you for this,” she said with the most gentle voice.

He crooned softly at her, making her smile slightly. Their gaze didn’t unlock until they both dozed off to sleep, comforted by the only presence of the other.


	12. The Magical Moss

A week or so after what was supposed to be Diaval’s day off, his mistress’ nest was almost finished. As planned, an ivy plant was running against the trunk of the rowan tree, and its leafy climbers were forming a cocoon around the nest. It was large enough so they could both fit into it either standing up or laying down. A sheet cleverly snatched by the raven was covering the fluffy floor of wool, and a big flower’s bud was hanging at the top of the cocoon.

The night was already at its darkest when they came back from their little stroll. Every evening, Maleficent dedicated one hour of her time to show him the wonders of her realm. She never failed to explain to him everything about every creatures and every plants, only to watch the marvelled look on his face. She had feared his reaction at first, but he happened to have become pretty fond of her world, especially the glowing things. However, sometimes it was to her doom, really…

“No, Diaval. We will not bring back magical moss,” she pointed out sternly at the dark haired man following her.

“But Mistress, it glows when one walks on it! It’s amazing!” he exclaimed with a gleeful expression.

She did her best not to laugh. He was being awfully demonstrative sometimes. It was amusing how something she found so casual was such a wonder for him. 

“I’m glad you liked it, but I thought we agreed on this. No more glowing things in the nest.”

Ever since they started building the nest, Diaval had this crazy idea of using glowing plants all over. In the end, she agreed to put a glowing flower inside of the cocoon in order to give them some light when it was too dark, if only he could stop asking to bring back every single glowing plant they encountered. It worked for a while, until today. 

“I never mentioned putting it into the nest, you know. Merely here, at the base of the tree. I’m sure it could be useful to see your way if you would ever need to get up in the middle of the night.”

What he was saying made sense. That could be useful. After all, he’s always had very good ideas to improve her home. She was just a little bit concerned he would spend his time playing with the magical moss if she was to allow it here. Especially considering the time it took her to drag him away from it the first time.

“I guess I’ll have to think about it,” she mused, stopping in front of their tree.

Diaval halted a few feet behind, and she turned to face him with raised eyebrows. 

“Don’t you want to do your thing?” she asked with an enigmatic glare.

His heart skipped a beat when he understood what she meant. 

It all started yesterday, after his trip to the castle. He had witnessed a lesson given to Stefan about gallantry, and how to behave properly around a woman – at the demand of the queen, it appeared, as he was complaining rather loudly about it. In any case, he had learnt a thing or two, and had tried it with his mistress at the end of their daily evening stroll. After all, if he was to be in man form, the least he could do was to show his respect and dedication to his mistress the way humans would. 

However, it didn’t went quite as expected, and Maleficent only saw in his behaviour a way to tell her she was weak, either because she was a woman, or because she was a wingless fairy. No need to mention she quickly became violent and spoke her mind along with all kind of threats. Of course, he explained her as soon as he was given the chance, but it hadn’t been enough to calm down the upset fairy, and she had sent him off to his nest right away. 

“B-But M-Mistress, I thought-“

“I overreacted,” she cut him off at once.

They haven’t mentioned the incident since then, but Maleficent thought this over during a good part of the night. She pondered about what he told her, that his gesture wasn’t meant to help her, but only to show her his infinite respect, devotion and concern, also to honour her as a lady and a queen. Time had smoothed her temper, and thinking about this eventually convinced her to change her mind.

Guessing he wouldn’t get any other explanation, Diaval smiled widely and leapt into the nest, parting the curtains. He then turned around, bowed elegantly, and offered his hand for her to take. 

This time, she didn’t yell at him, but instead took his hand and let him guide her inside of the nest. He was quite charming, really, and she liked how he looked so humble in front of her. The truth was, the forced bows and allegiance of the fair folk never truly made her feel like a queen, but his current behaviour was almost enough to do so.

She let go of his hand as soon as she was in the nest and gracefully sat down. With a wisp of golden magic, the flower above them slowly opened, casting a soft light inside of the cocoon. She looked at her servant’s amazed gaze with a wry smile. Even though she spent her evenings showing him all the shiny things of the Moors, he still stayed in awe in front of most of them, and the glowing flower inside of her nest wasn’t an exception.

“You’re not going to the water hole, tonight?” he asked innocently while sitting down at the opposite end of the nest.

That wasn’t like he wanted her to leave or anything, but she used to grab a change of clothes and go bathing right away when they came back from their evening stroll. 

“I am not. It has been a long day. Besides, I’ve grown quite curious about why you always wish to stay here while I’m gone.”

She didn’t want to be nosy, but his behaviour about this was quite suspicious, and the last thing she needed was a reason to doubt her companion, especially now that she started to trust him so much. Of course, it has never been her intention, but she had noticed that recently, her body would relax anytime he was close, even when he was in human form.

“Well, I need light... To practise my reading,” he admitted, lowering his gaze.

He knew she wouldn’t like it. She despised humans, and reading was something specific to men, but he couldn’t lie to her. Dishonesty wasn’t in birds’ nature, and he was pretty sure she would know if he was to lie to her, anyway.

“I never asked you to do that,” she said, raising an eyebrow.

The fairy narrowed her eyes, but didn’t let show her troubled thoughts. Reading? Why in hell would he want to know how to read? Would that be his human side taking over? In either case, that wasn’t good. She shouldn’t let him in his human form so often, or he would start to think like one, and she figured reading was just the beginning of it.

“What if I don’t want you to read?” she spat sharply.

“Believe me, I don’t enjoy it. It’s quite a pain to learn, really,” he complained.

She gave him a puzzled look, silently asking for an explanation. His reasoning didn’t make any sense. Why would he do something that annoying?

The raven turned man bit his lip and somehow got a few folded papers out of his shirt. He chose one and handed it to her.

“Look. I saw this paper posted in every village I crossed. I’m pretty sure it talks about you, and I assumed we’d better be prepared if a bunch of angry humans were to come for you,” he explained with a sheepish face.

The fairy unfolded the thick sheet. Inside was a drawing that looked very much like her, along with some lines of these peculiar symbols humans were using to communicate. She wondered what Stefan would have to say about her to his new subjects. Certainly not what he did to her or the connection he once had to the Moors. 

She looked away while her mind was lost in the memories of their laughs and games. They were real, weren’t they? He couldn’t have planned his treachery from the beginning. On the other hand, how could he do that to her after being her friend for so long? After… telling her he loved her. She closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh. She couldn’t even recall how many times she thought about his reasons for doing something that horrendous to the person he claimed to love. What had happened to him? Didn’t he have any regrets at all? 

A hand on her palm startled her, chasing away the dreary thoughts. She just realised Diaval was calling her. She turned to him and her imperious gaze fell on the place his fingers were resting. Surely, he hadn’t forget how she felt about touching. Of course they were touching an awful lot when they cuddled, but it wasn’t the same. It shouldn’t be the same, at least. She made this point very clear the first time she established the rules.

“Sorry,” he said, hastily withdrawing his hand. “You seemed gloomy, all of a sudden.” 

The raven turned man didn’t push the matter and stayed silent for a moment. It wasn’t unusual of her to be a little bit gloomy, but since he saved her life, she was much more light-hearted when they were in the nest, and Diaval was determined to keep it this way.

“If you don’t want me to, I won’t read, Mistress,” he pointed out docilely, hoping that alone would soothe her darkening mood.

She looked at him with an impassive expression. It was indeed a good idea for him to learn how to read. His ability may be a very good asset to help protect the Moors from humans. Besides, it was true this piece of paper was alarming. What if Stefan was looking for someone to finish what he had been too coward to do himself: kill her? Then a lot of dangerous humans would try to cross the border and would make a mess of her magical land with their iron weapons. Diaval was right, they have to be prepared if something like that was to happen.

“No, Diaval. As a matter of fact, I think it could be useful. Just tell me when you understand what it says,” she commanded as she gave him the mysterious parchment back.

“Sure, Mistress.”

He went back to his work, unfolding the other papers he had. From the corner of his eye, he saw his Mistress’ arm diving into the hole of the trunk behind her, to get out her hairbrush. He wished she would be kind enough to let him preen her hair sometimes, but that was something she appeared to be doing while bathing, as she always came back with cleaned and preened hair.   
The raven turned man shook off those thoughts, realising it was pointless to have such high hopes, and lay his eyes on the parchment he was holding.

From the other side of the nest, Maleficent was combing her hair meticulously. It was far easier to comb it while they were wet, but she was too tired to go to the water hole, tonight. Not to mention the water was becoming awfully cold when the sun was down, these days. The reign of autumn was coming to an end, and the frosty season would be there soon enough, with all the extra work that meant for her. She may have to ask Diaval to help her out with the patrols from time to time, as she wasn’t sure she could walk properly with snow and ice all over the Moors.

With a yawn, she put her hairbrush back in the hole of the tree and sat down against the trunk, her eyes fixed back on her servant. He seemed to be concentrating hard on whatever he was doing. Boredom made her think about possible ways to annoy him, but it wouldn’t be fair to him. From what she heard, learning human’s reading was difficult enough as it was. Besides, the only reason he was going through it was to keep her safe. Her face cracked into a tender smile and she kept observing him silently, wondering how on earth the evil fairy she had become could deserve all the attention and sweetness her servant was giving her.  
She raised an eyebrow when she noticed he was struggling to find a plane surface to write on one of the parchments. With a sigh, she torn off a tiny piece of bark from the tree and enlarged it until it would look like a little board. She then took his papers, put them on it and handed him the whole thing.

“Thank you, Mistress,” he mumbled with a shameful smile.

The fairy nodded at him evenly, her emerald eyes glowing warmly in the dim light. However, something was bugging her about the whole thing. She felt like he was hiding something from her. 

“How are you learning how to read?” she inquired, raising an eyebrow.

“Stefan can’t read either, so I’m attending his lessons, and I borrowed these to practise,” the raven-man answered, gesturing to the parchments.

So that was how he got the idea. He was spending an awful lot of time attending Stefan’s lessons, she realised. The amusing fact was that her raven seemed to be complaining less and learning faster than the wannabe king, at least from what she heard. That wasn’t surprising. Ravens were highly intelligent beings, and hers wasn’t an exception, quite the contrary, really.

“Little thief,” she teased.

Her featured relaxed into a smirk when he gave her a mischievous grin. Maybe, just maybe, one day, she would get bold enough to ask him to teach her. This ability of reading had always intrigued her, and it would be a very good way to remember things, like spells or recipes.

A few minutes later, Diaval yawned and promptly covered his mouth as his mistress’ eyes narrowed at him fiercely. He always forgot to do it, no matter how many times she reminded him to do so. Birds didn’t yawned, and his human body was yawning on his own, so why would he care? 

“Are you done for tonight?” she asked, interrupting his thoughts.

Usually, he would just wait for her return to stop what he was doing, but he had to admit, he was pretty tired. Running across the magical moss to make it glow was exhausting, he mused. But it had been quite the experience. 

“I think I am.”

She nodded and got her back away from the trunk in order to take her servant’s board and parchments. He looked at her in awe as she was putting it into the hole of the tree, where she kept her own things. Surely she didn’t want to mix his things with hers?

“We will keep your things along with mine. Just ask me if you want them. Understood?”

He nodded obediently and thanked her. A second later, he was a bird again. He hopped to her shoulder and crooned at her softly.

“Is that a ‘good night’?” she asked on a light tone.

He nodded this time with his feathery head and cawed at her excitedly when she smiled at him.

“Good night then, Diaval,” she murmured.


	13. Frightening Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for not having updated in more than a year, but I'm back to writing the 14th chapter ;)

A few hours later, Diaval was fast asleep in his nest, inside of his mistress’ cocoon. It has become a habit for her to expand the climbers of the ivy plant, just enough to encircled his nest with hers. She seemed to be having no problem at all with their constant proximity when he was in his original from. The raven had even noticed that she never tried to stay awake until he gave up to slumber, like she always did when they cuddled. What kind of harm could a raven do to a fairy, anyway? Besides, he knew it was instinct. A man had hurt her, so she couldn’t trust men anymore. All the animals felt the same because humans used to hurt every being they encountered. Unfortunately for him, he sometimes looked like one. He knew from the beginning that it would take time for her to trust him entirely, and he would wait. Birds were very patient animals after all, especially when it was worth waiting. One day, she would see more than a man or a bird in him. One day…

Suddenly, Diaval was woken by a yelp. He recognized his mistress’ voice, and panic rose in his chest. It wasn’t like her to yelp. Something was wrong. He looked around and spotted her in her nest, fidgeting violently. The raven tilted his head curiously and flew to her side, wondering what was wrong, when he remembered what she had once told him about nightmares. It was a particularly unpleasant experience, and the only thing he could do to end it was to wake her up. An anguished shriek from her lying form made his heart skipped a beat. He perched near her head at once and cawed as loud as possible for a few minutes, but she didn’t wake up. Instead, he heard her breathing heavily and mumbling unintelligible words. She seemed in pain, and as he recognized a name among her grumbles, a shiver ran down his spine. He had to save her from this.

The raven hoped inside of the nest and tried to pinch her hand with his beak a few times, squawking every now and then in concern, but it still didn’t work. As a last resort, he hoped on the pillow beside her head and cawed frantically, flapping his wings so hard they were hitting her wincing face.

With a sudden scream, her upper body straightened up, and her arm violently kicked the raven in the chest, slapping him against the wooden edge of the nest. Her eyes were wide open the second later. Exhaling shakily, she scanned her surroundings to make sure she was safe, until her gaze stopped on her knocked out raven.

“D-Diaval?” she called, putting a trembling hand on his soft plumage.

She sighted in relief as she felt him croon under her touch. For a second, she envisioned the worst. That dream was particularly nasty, and the last thing she needed was to escape from it only to have lost her wings all over again. She stroked his feathers, hoping that would calm her down, and cupped her hands around her bird to bring him back next to her.

“Are you hurt?” she asked in a hoarse voice, brushing his feathery head with shaky fingers.

She gulped, attempting to regain her composure. Her heart was still pounding loudly in her chest. The fairy couldn’t get her nightmare’s awful images out of her head, not to mention the feeling of being helpless was still tormenting her.

The raven at her side slowly opened one eye to look at her and crooned softly. He was barely conscious, she realised. She had to make sure he was alright. 

“Into a man,” she said without thinking.

However, when the raven became human, the very same kind that haunted her dreams, her eyes grew wide with fear and she instinctively jerked away from him. It only lasted one second before her face became again as fierce as ever, but of course, Diaval had noticed.

“M-Mistress?” he mumbled awkwardly.

Their eyes locked, and the raven grew wary of what he was seeing in his mistress’ gaze. There was still some hints of fear, hidden behind a challenging determination and wild power. She was looking at him as if she was waiting for any sign of weakness to strike, to defend herself.

Her behaviour shook the raven turned man to the core. She was afraid of him. The only person he really cared about was afraid of him. His eyes mirrored her fear, and it quickly turned into sadness, before he broke eye contact to lower his head. A lump was growing in his throat. The only thing he wanted to do right now was to run away and hide his cries. He couldn’t bear the way she was looking at him. 

While his heart was shattering, he closed his eyes and whispered in a broken voice, “Please, Mistress, change me back.”

The fairy watched her servant with bitterness. She knew he was hurt, but right now, she couldn’t do anything about it. He would have to endure this alone. It was just too hard to be near his human form any longer. 

She raised her hand to transform him, and stopped in mid motion. Her hand seemed to be moving on her own, reaching up to his hair. She hardly believed how much her body seemed to be remembering that the best way to soothe her was to scratch his scalp. 

Eventually, she shook her head lightly and wisps of golden magic changed him back to his original form. She wasn’t brave enough to do anything other than that, tonight.

Head low, the raven was about to fly to his nest, when his mistress’ voice stopped him.

“Don’t,” she commanded. 

The black bird turned to face her and tilted his head to the side, as to ask her why. He watched his mistress lie down more comfortably on her side, before extending her arm toward him. 

“Come,” she whispered.

With a soft caw, he held on to her inviting finger with his talons, and let his mistress take him to her. She dropped him so close to her face his feathers were brushing her skin. Her arms slowly encircled him. It felt like being in a nest, but even better. He couldn’t help but croon in pleasure as he felt her hand stroking his plumage. Everything was back to normal, he thought happily.

“It’s not you, you know,” she pointed out after a few minutes of petting him. “It’s the humans.” 

The sleepy raven opened one eye and let out a very soft caw. He knew she didn’t mean to hurt his feelings. What happened was just a survival reflex.

She remembered how she still couldn’t stand the sound of their breathing, even weeks after Stefan’s betrayal. That was why she kept changing Diaval into his original form right away after his reports. It took time, but the fairy was now over it, though, and felt at ease around her pet’s human form. Most of the time, at least.

“I know you’re not like them,” she added, locking eyes with him.

She smiled when he rubbed his head against her jaw, and scratched his favourite spot. Such a sweet bird, she thought. She liked how the only thing he seemed to be wanting of her was her affection. There was a time she had been just like him… And it led her to becoming this wingless creature feared by all. Or maybe not all, she mused, as she felt Diaval nestling more comfortably in the crook of her neck. This ability of his to not be afraid of her was as annoying as it warmed her chest.

They both gave in to a dreamless slumber within minutes, feathers touching skin and beak on top of jaw.

When the morning came, Maleficent felt her servant moving. She looked up to his face, only to watch him lazily open his eyes.

“Good morning, pet,” she offered when his gaze settled on her.

He lets out a guttural sound that could look like a crooning, tilted his head in a very bird manner and rubbed his sleepy face against hers. 

Startled by his attitude, she froze at first, but it wasn’t long before she relaxed under her servant’s display of affection. Warmth was filling her chest as the edge of his nose was moving against hers, their crowns brushing every now and then. She knew she should have scolded him for acting without waiting for her impulse, but she wasn’t sure he had yet realised he was in human form, and the temptation of taunting him was too great.

“Aren’t you going to wish a good morning to your mistress?” she asked with an imperious voice as soon as he was done nuzzling her.

“Good Morn-AH!”

As soon as he realised he was in human form, Diaval tried to get away from his mistress, but her arms were firmly encircling his waist. Enable to move, he settled down carefully against her, watching her every movements to get sure she was ok with their closeness. The raven turned man gradually relaxed as his mistress seemed as comfortable as the last time they cuddled.

“M-Mistress? Why am I in human form?” he inquired awkwardly.

“I changed you, silly,” she grunted, stating the obvious.

He locked eyes with her, hoping to find some kind of explanation in her emerald orbs. A few hours ago she couldn’t bear his proximity, and now everything was back to normal? He was happy about it, but he wanted to understand. She must have somehow guessed his thoughts, because she explained herself after a short moment.

“I was cold,” the fairy admitted softly.

Under her insisting glare, he snaked his arms around her in a more cosy position, and her head soon landed on his shoulder.

“What about now?” he whispered in her hair.

She took a peek at his cheeky face, and gave him a smirk.

“I’m good,” she murmured. 

He nudged her head with his and held her tighter in response. It felt so good to be welcomed in her arms. It was now that his body was once again pressed against hers that he realised how much he had missed this. He couldn’t resist and nudged at her again, but this time, her head lazily slipped away from his.

“Diaval, what are you prodding me for? What has gotten into you this morning?” she asked, bemused. 

“What do you mean?”

She shifted away to look at him, but didn’t loosen their embrace. 

“The first thing you did after waking up was to rub your head all over my face, and you just did it again. Explain yourself,” she ordered, brows high.

Caught in the act, the raven lowered his head shamefully. She had every reason to be mad at him, because he didn’t stick to her rules. He knew he wasn’t supposed to initiate anything toward her, but he just couldn’t help it. His raven’s self seemed to make him act on his own.

“Oh, hmm. Actually, this is how ravens cuddle,” he mumbled, avoiding her gaze.

She nodded knowingly. That was what she thought, but that didn’t explain everything.

“Why did you do it?”

The raven turned man sighted in a distressed manner and raised his gaze to look at her. 

“Truth is, when we’re cuddling, I feel like the right way to do it is raven’s way… It’s stupid,” he conceded, waving his hand.

She smiled, glad that again today, she didn’t have to use her magic to get the truth out of him, no matter how disturbing it was for him to say it. The fairy watched him lowering his eyes again. He was expecting to be punished because he overstepped her terms, but she just couldn’t be mad at him because of his animal instincts. Her hand slowly crept to his dark hair, hoping to sooth him.

“We could add this to the rules,” she mused aloud while scratching his neck.

His eyes went wide as he looked at her hopefully. He couldn’t speak for a few seconds, then managed to say in a whisper, “R-really?”

Pleased by his habit of never taking anything for granted with her, she stroked his cheek, before combing through his hair once again. She scanned his chocolate pupils as if to look for a reason to pull back with her offer, but the only things she saw there were genuine concern, innocence and warmth.

“Show it to me again. If I like it I may consider it,” she murmured, before rolling on her side with him.

Their eyes locked, and his head came slowly closer to hers. She couldn’t move out of apprehension. He closed his eyes when he was sure he wouldn’t miss his target and she just watched him helplessly. It looked very much like he was going to kiss her, but she knew he would never. Did she? She was about to pull back when his crown met hers. They stayed still, leaning against another for a few seconds, and eventually, Mal closed her eyes in relief. It felt good. She could feel him nudging a little bit at her forehead in slow motions, and she quickly started to do the same. Their nose bridges were gently brushing with each motion. Mal relaxed against his touch and eventually, he pulled back. She relished in the sweet feeling of Goosebumps and warmth growing all over her body. The butterflies in her stomach made her smile uncontrollably. 

“So? Did you like it?”

“Very much,” she said before meeting his crown again.

She didn’t even have the will to hide what she was feeling. They kept nuzzling at each other slowly, gently, until they became sleepy.


	14. The Iron Trap

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Nope I didn't give up finishing this one just yet ^^ I'm sorry for the delay and I'll try to write regularly from now on. Bigs thanks to DancingKitKat for the beta-reading! Don't forget to review! (please?)

Maleficent was walking carefully near the south end of the Moors. Snow and ice were everywhere, considerably slowing her patrols to ensure the safety and well-being of her precious land. Fortunately, Diaval was helping her, flying from one border to another and reporting to her if there was anything that would need her magic. He was incredibly diligent in his work, reporting her even the slightest wounds to the trees. To be honest, they made a good team, and she could totally picture their collaboration to go on beyond winter, even if there wasn't much to do, most of the time.

However, today her raven was rushing toward her, cawing madly. She held her breath. He must have witnessed something serious.

He led her to the entrance of the forest nearing the border with the human kingdom, and landed on her staff to caw at her, flapping his wings.

The fairy looked around sternly. Nothing seemed to be wrong here. She turned to her servant and changed him in order to stop his incessant squawking. He got the bad habit of doing so every time he wanted to be changed into his human form.

"Well?" she asked, with a raised eyebrow.

If he was to proudly show her a pile of rocks he just assembled, she was going to get mad. He had done so a few days ago, but once changed in his human form, he must have figured out it looked ridiculously small, because he had stepped on it. Even now, she was still wondering what he intended to achieve, though.

"A fox got caught in a human trap, this way," the raven turned man explained hastily, bringing her back to present time.

She looked in the direction he was pointing to and sighed. She would have to walk again. She was tired of struggling against wind and snow to perform her duty every single day. She just wanted to go home, have a tea and let her servant's warm embrace lull her to sleep.

"Why didn't you led me to it then, instead of slowing us down," she grunted angrily.

The quicker they would deal with this, the quicker she could rest. She took a step forward, but Diaval grabbed her arm.

"Mistress, wait."

Raising an eyebrow, she froze at the contact and her fierce eyes fell on his hand.

"Sorry," he mumbled while removing his hand.

He knew it wasn't his place to tell her what to do, but something felt dangerously wrong. Animals from the human land never crossed the border of the Moors because the omnipresent smell of magic surrounding the place made them feel unsafe – he had experienced it more than once in his raven form – so what was that fox doing here?

"I just… I have a bad feeling about this," he said.

She eyed him suspiciously. What had got into him? It was just the forest. Humans were bold, but not to the point of challenging the power of the Moors by knowingly setting traps beyond their border. It was certainly an unfortunate mistake. It wasn't the first time nor would it be the last time that happened.

"What if they were other traps? They are made of iron, you know…"

She held back a shudder at the word. Of course they were, and that was why she had to take care of it. She couldn't stand the thought of her precious land corrupted with iron. She shook her head and stepped into the dark forest.

"Don't be ridiculous. I can watch my steps."

Fortunately, ten minutes later, they reached the border of the Moors without incident. The exhausted animal was lying on the ground and watched them approach helplessly, as if it knew the end was near. The fairy stopped a few steps away to examine the wound. It didn't look too serious. Diaval came closer as she gestured for him to release the creature.

"There, there, little fella," he whispered, while spreading open the metallic jaws.

The trembling form tried to crawl away, but Diaval held it back and settled it on his lap, away from the trap.

Maleficent crouched on the snow next to him. She raised an eyebrow when noticing her servant was actually petting the fox. His compassion towards other life forms always took her aback while he was in human form. She wasn't used to this kind of behaviour from humans… Sometimes she wondered if it wasn't too much of an insult to his kindness to change him into a human so often.

"Don't worry little one. We're the good guys. Mistress here will heal you, and you'll be as good as new," the raven turned man softly told the fox.

"I thought you hated canines," she retorted, as her magic was working on the wounded paw.

"He's been trapped by men and saved by you. I think we have a lot in common. Besides, this one is pretty nice to look at, and he's got fluffy fur."

Mal smirked. Was it always about the look? The wounded paw was soon healed and the fox ran away, lightly limping. She got up and looked at the darkening sky. The sun was slowly sinking into the horizon.

"Let's go back to the tree," she said, getting up.

She heard Diaval getting on his feet and following her closely. She smiled as he stumbled in the snow. She should have changed him, but it was funnier to just let him struggle.

"Mistress. Please let me lead the way. I don't think it's safe."

She stopped and turned around to meet his eyes intently. After all, if he wanted to make a fool of himself, the least she could do was to watch. It would be much more fun to see him fall again and again than to just hear it. She hoped it would be worth the inconvenience. On the end, she gestured for him to go before her.

He was walking much too slowly for her taste, watching his steps carefully as they were going to be ambushed anytime soon. Such ridiculous notions he had sometimes. As if humans were stupid enough to come into her realm to try and hurt her. She sighted loudly. She would be patient and let him another 10 seconds before kicking him in the butt and scolding him for his slowness. After another day walking in the snow, she missed dearly the warmth of her tree and couldn't wait to get there, but at this pace, it…

A howl interrupted her thoughts and she gasped as she saw Diaval fall down in pain.

"Diaval!" she called, hurrying to his side.

His human form was shaking and the pain made him winced violently. It was taking everything for him not to yell like mad and keep his teeth firmly clenched together. When you were a trapped animal, the last thing to do was to cry out in the night.

Maleficent's heart skipped a beat at the sight of his blood pouring abundantly from the wound and the ferocious jaws that hung tightly to his ankle. The metal seemed to have pierced his flesh to the bone. The agony on his face made her insides freeze, and without thinking, she reached for the trap, ignoring her burning palms. She was about to try and open it when Diaval's hands irreverently slapped hers away.

"Mistress, don't!" he yelped in alarm.

He couldn't help but groan in agony while sitting up in a better position. The pain was unbearable, worst than anything he had ever experienced, and he could already feel the wetness at the corner of his eyes. But it didn't matter, he had to do it himself, or his mistress would burn herself on the hot iron. With all the courage he could muster, he grabbed the metallic jaws with both hands and slowly forced it open, struggling against the vicious trap as well as the pain he was inflicting himself, shrieking with all his might to find the necessary strength to finish his task. He had barely managed to withdraw the metal from his leg when all his strength abandoned him and he let go of the giant jaws. Wincing at the tremendous amount of pain he knew was to follow when the trap would dig into his ankle again, he closed his eyes and waited for the blow, but it never came. He opened his eyes to find a thick piece of wood keeping the jaws just open enough not to bite into his flesh again. Letting out a shaky sigh of pure relief, he watched as his mistress worked her magic on his bleeding wound.

She observed him, incredulous, while healing his leg. She couldn't believe he would have gone through that so she wouldn't get hurt. His courage, devotion and kindness were startling her all over again. How could such a simple creature grow up to display qualities even humans rarely possessed?

Diaval's eyes shifted from his mistress to the pool of blood at his feet. For a moment there, he really thought he was going to die. He was still trembling from the trauma. He was just relieved this didn't happen to his mistress. The pain would have been so much worse for her, and he couldn't begin to imagine her going through that kind of agony again. He vowed to himself he would protect her, and he realised proudly that he managed to do just that.

Once the wound was healed, the raven turned man thanked her and summoned what was left of his energy to extract his foot from the trap. The pain has been reduced to an annoying stinging, but he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to stand. He felt too weak to even move a muscle, anyway. With an exhausted sigh, he collapsed to the ground.

The fairy got up, raising an eyebrow. When her eyes fell on the iron trap, she remarked it was in fact bigger and stronger than the one they found the fox in. This has been all a set-up to get to her, she realised with bitterness.

She raised her hand, and with a flip of her fingers, Diaval was floating beside her.

"Mistress?" he queried sleepily when he felt his form hovering above the snow.

"Shhhh. Sleep," she lulled, sending a wisp of golden magic towards him.

He gratefully welcomed the darkness that took hold of him and fell into a gentle slumber, what was left of his pain already forgotten.

About an hour later, the sun had almost completely vanished beyond the horizon. Maleficent was in her nest, pulling a blanket over her servant's sleeping body. She sat beside him and watched him sleep peacefully for a moment, deep in thoughts about today's events.

Humans crossing the border and setting up iron traps in her realm without anyone noticing: this was very alarming, especially with Stefan as the new king of the humans. He knew the Moors as well as the defences around her land, and it would be far too easy for him to find a way around it. She had to strengthen the security and find out who was behind the attack. She would talk to Balthazar about it tomorrow.

Her eyes settled on Diaval's feet. His tibia bone has been broken near the ankle, and it would need rest in order to heal completely. She felt a pang in her chest at the simple thought of the pain he's been through. His instincts were right, but she was too stubborn to listen to him. If she have had even the slightest doubt, she would have called Balthazar to check the area first. Never in a million years the fairy would have let her raven take the risk of getting hurt that way. She hoped he knew this.

A freezing breeze came inside the nest and made her shiver. The nights were getting colder. It had never been a problem before now, because her wings would always keep her warm. She missed them so dearly… She sighed and made the ivy plant grow a good layer of extra leaves, hoping that would protect them from the wind. The fairy then nestled against Diaval and pulled the blanket over them both.

"Mistress," Called her servant, woken by her warm body snuggling closer to his. "You brought me back," he pointed out in a relieved whisper.

"Of course I did, silly creature. Do you think I would have let you there to die?" she sneered.

He couldn't say he didn't think she would. After all, it was how it worked on the wild. When one on a flock got sick or hurt, they would be left behind. He was glad it was different with his mistress. He had a proof today that she would protect him just like he was protecting her. It felt so good to know someone had your back…

He naturally snaked his arms around her when she moved to lay her head on his shoulder. It has been a while since they last cuddled, and he intended to enjoy every single second of it. He breathed into her hair as her hand climbed to his chest. He was tenderly observing her long fingers stroking his scars when a thought struck him.

"Mistress, your hands! Were you hurt?" he cried in alarm, reaching for her hand.

She was too stunned to react when he examined her palm for any trace of wound. The fairy watched him, fascinated, as he was holding her hand with extreme care, like it was some kind of treasure.

"Don't be ridiculous, Diaval, it was just a little burn. It's healed already."

However, she didn't shove his touch away, not even when he didn't let go and instead settled their joined hands on his chest. His steady heartbeat under her had already started to lull her to sleep.

"The only one that got hurt was you," she said bitterly.

"If we could go back in time I would do the exact same thing, Mistress," he answered at once.

He smiled reassuringly as her wide emerald orbs met his black ones.

"I'm just glad you're alright," the raven turned man added in a whisper, squeezing her hand softly.

Such devotion. Such protectiveness. If it had come from anyone else, she would have known without a doubt they were lying, but from Diaval, she could almost believe his sweet words. She wanted very much so. Before she knew what she was doing, her thumb was gently brushing the back of his hand, and she was delighted to feel his fingers soon drawing patterns on her palm, as if he had been waiting for her impulse to do so. She just realised they never touched hands before. It was a very enjoyable feeling, one she wanted to explore. There was nothing wrong in doing so, after all.

She let out a relieved sigh. It was working, more than ever before. His arms were bringing her warmth, comfort, safety and even something she recognized as contentment. She could almost be happy right now. Almost.

"I'm just glad I saved you that day," she murmured softly, mirroring his blissful words.

He tightened his arm around her in response. At this moment, Diaval felt like he's never been happier in his life. She just admitted that she appreciated him, didn't she? Not to mention she was still caressing his hand with a fondness he never witnessed from her. He fell asleep within minutes, wishing the warm feeling inside him would never go away.


	15. The Day Off

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thanks for your lovely comments and for not giving up on me! Sorry it took so long to update, but this chapter was quite a pain for me to write as I was still looking for where I'm going with this fanfic. Until now I was writing fluffy just to be fluffy, but I've finally found where I'm going with this (it definitely doesn't mean I'll give up on fluffy chapters don't worry xD)

With the first lights of the morning, Maleficent slowly opened her eyes, only to sigh as her gaze focused on the heavy snow falling outside. More snow. That was the last thing she needed. At least today she had an excuse to stay at the nest a bit longer, she thought while looking down at her pet, sleeping peacefully. She raised an eyebrow as she noticed their hands were still awkwardly clutched together, but didn't let go. Instead, she toyed with his fingers, thinking about yesterday's events. He had said he would protect her, and he had, even despite herself – which was quite the accomplishment, really. Surprisingly, he had even been able to sense the danger when she could not. She wasn't sure if it had been because of his animal instinct or his closeness to the human kind, but in any case, he had been right and she had been wrong, as hard as it was for her to admit it. She sighted heavily. At least he had the good sense to not rub it in her face afterwards. She didn't know how she would have reacted to that. Surely very badly.

She was driven away from her thoughts when she felt his form jerking violently. The arm around her slipped away, and she sat down next to him as he was gasping and mumbling, until she recognized a few words.

"Mistress, don't… No!

It was certainly the very first time he had to go through a nightmare, and Maleficent was distressed to observe it seemed to be about her torturing him. Surely he knew she would never harm him? As a whimper escaped his lips, she couldn't take it any longer and used her magic to wake him up. The raven turned man suddenly opened his eyes, jolting upright.

"Diaval, are you alright?" she asked, concerned.

She was certainly the last person he wanted to see after this, but it was her duty to make sure he was going to be ok.

However, when his wet eyes looked up at her, what she saw in them wasn't fear, but pure relief. His bottom lip was quivering uncontrollably.

"M-M-Mistress…" he breathed shakily, before encircling her with protective arms. "You-you were dead," he gasped into her shoulder.

She easily slid into his embrace and held him tight. It was hard to believe that her death would shake him that much, yet he looked utterly horrified. She wondered what she had done for him to treasure her like that. Weirdly, she also wondered what she didn't do for Stefan not to care for her as much. Less than a year ago, she would have done anything for this man to cherish her life the way her raven did.

"I'm fine, Diaval. It was just a nightmare," she whispered gently into his ear.

She never liked comforting people, but it was much easier to comfort someone that seemed to care so deeply about her. She stroked his back in slow motions and his breathing – as well as his grip on her - eased progressively.

After a few seconds, Maleficent pulled back to look at him. His eyes were still wet and a few tears had escaped, but he seemed to be holding up. Again, his human emotions were overwhelming him.

She hated seeing him like that. Such a sweet creature should never have to go through that kind of things.

Almost on its own accord, her hand landed on his cheek, and she closed the space between their foreheads. Usually, he was the one chasing her pain away, the least she could do was to return the favour whenever she could. She relished at the warm feeling growing in her chest as she nudged at him, and her arms moved to his side once again.

The raven-man drew out a breath he didn't know he was holding, and leaned in, slowly stroking her head with his. Their noses brushed slightly, and he responded to her embrace. It was the first time they did that since he showed her how raven cuddled, and he was glad she remembered. A soft moan escaped his mouth as she dragged her lips across his jaw, but she pulled away instantly.

She definitely didn't do that in purpose, but… well it felt kind of good. She was about to do it again, when she heard a familiar grunt outside and shifted her attention towards it.

"Mistress?" He queried, distressed to have to end their moment so soon.

"Stay here, Diaval. I'll be back in a minute."

Diaval obeyed and with wary eyes, he followed her slender figure getting down the tree. He sat against the tree trunk and kept a close eye on his Mistress from inside the nest. After that dream, there was no way he would let her out of his sight, even for a moment. He was relieved to see she was talking to Balthazar. If there was one creature in the Moors which loyalty towards her rivalled his, it was the tree warrior. He gave her something that looked like a heavy bag, nodded at her and walked away.

The raven turned man bowed and held out his hand to help her climb back on the tree like he was now used to doing, and she sat next to him on her side of the bed. He was still shaken and was trying his best to forget the awful images of his nightmare, but after a few minutes, he figured the best way would be to distract his mind by talking about something else.

"Any plans for today at all, Mistress?" He asked as she was putting the bag in the hollow of the tree.

The fairy turned to him with a raised eyebrow. He couldn't expect her to be sending him on mission after what happened the day just before, could he? He may be able to fly, but he needed rest after all the blood he'd lost, or he'd be exhausted. She couldn't put his life at risk by neglecting his health. Not after everything he was doing for her, and certainly not after everything he became to her. She scolded herself for being so sentimental and remembered he was still waiting for an answer.

"Not for you. You're staying in the nest today," she declared sternly.

"Oh,"

He wasn't really surprised; he had been hurt after all, and even though his mistress seemed sometimes cold as ice, he knew she was also very caring. He remembered fondly the first day of snow, when she offered him a warm and elegant black coat after he came back from the castle, saying haughtily she would have no use of a frozen servant.

However, he wasn't sure he liked the idea of being away from her for the whole day, especially with who knew how many of those iron traps still in the Moors.

"You'll be staying with me, won't you?" He asked pleadingly.

"Well as a matter of fact, Balthazar just convinced me to take over my duties so I could take a day off, so I might as well stay here."

She shot him an insisting glare, and he lowered his eyes. He didn't know how, but she knew. Surely Balthazar wouldn't have told her, would he? It happened a few days ago, when she neglected to change him back to his raven form when sending him away. He walked for a while, sat against a tree and began talking to himself. He liked talking, this voice of his was still almost foreign to him, and hearing it helped a bit with his human form. Not to mention it was a good training to word his thoughts and feelings. Anyway, he voiced all kind of things, and at some point, he was stunned to feel the tree he was sitting against moving out of his way and walking away, after giving him an assessing look. The Moors really was a strange place to live in, sometimes.

"What did you tell him?" she asked, raising an accusing eyebrow.

Her annoyed face made him nervous instantly. He knew she had her pride, and he was afraid he had said something that would offend her, even if he couldn't picture why.

"I'm sorry, Mistress, I didn't mean to, you see, I hadn't recognized him and I was in the forest, talking to myself like I sometimes do, and…

"WHAT did you tell him?" she cut him off with a dangerous voice.

The fairy was growing more concerned by the second as he rambled on. He was obviously trying to hide what he said from her in fear of her reaction, which only meant he did say something that would anger her. Her emerald eyes glowered at him in the dim light of the nest, and she was satisfied to notice it was enough to make him shiver.

"I said I wished you could have some time to yourself like you often give me, instead of patrolling the Moors all day," he answered in a rush.

Maleficent raised an eyebrow at him, dumbfounded.

"Is that it?" she asked with a dubious tone.

How exactly was that supposed to make her mad at him? It was instead very sweet, so why would he try to hide it? Suddenly, a thought struck her. Maybe it wasn't it. Maybe he did say something very private about her, and was only trying to buy some time. Something like… Oh no. Not that.

"Did you mention _anything_ about the cuddling? She growled suddenly, fierce eyes back on him

"W-What? No! Of course not, Mistress!" he protested, outraged she could think he would reveal their secret so easily.

She observed him intently and concluded he was saying the truth. It has never been in his nature to lie, anyway. Birds didn't lie. Her expression softened as she remembered the thoughts he had been voicing. It was certainly very sweet, but she couldn't allow him to keep talking about her that way in the Moors. The risk of someone hearing and thinking less of her was too big.

"Diaval, from now on, I expect you to voice your thoughts to me, and me alone whenever you feel the need to do so," she said in a stern voice.

"Yes, Mistress," he replied at once.

He wasn't sure he would be very comfortable sharing things he thought about her, but the last thing he wanted was to give her another reason to get mad at him, especially when they were about to spend their first day off together. The only thought of it made his lips curve up. He knew he couldn't expect any form of cuddling, but she was acting so carefree around him in the nest that it made him feel more like her friend than her servant, and he liked that quite a lot.

Maleficent nodded curtly and turned around to get her hairbrush out of the hole of the trunk. She managed not to wince at the pain in her back, but sighed heavily. A few days ago, the usual ache had slowly turned into a dull pain and she could feel it growing with each passing day. It has begun so annoying that she might even get bold enough to ask Diaval for the balm if the pain hadn't lessened by tonight.

"Do you want your reading things? Last time you told me you were very close to decipher it all, didn't you?" she queried, eyes on him.

He puffed his chest very much like he would have done as a bird. He liked the thought of still being useful to her, even in this useless human form.

"Yes, Mistress. I think I'll be done today."

She nodded in appreciation and gave him everything he needed to get to work.

"Good. Tell me as soon as you know."

They spent the following hours mostly in silence. Diaval was lying on his stomach, feet in the air, and worked intently on his papers, while Maleficent was busy attempting to fix herself a frightening hairstyle. This was something she often thought about trying, but she never had the time to do so.

"What about this one?" She asked, eyebrow raised.

She didn't really care about his opinion, but she was looking for something specific, something closer to evil than her usual look, and as a very vain bird, Diaval's comments on that matter were somehow helpful.

The raven turned man looked up at her. This time, her hair was nowhere to be seen. It was tightly wrapped within a scales-like fabric. She looked quite impressive, if not scary. However the ethereal beauty of her features was so raw that it left him agape for a few seconds.

"Alright, this time you look _almost_ fearful," he consented playfully, before shifting his attention back to his work.

"Almost?" she asked in a bewildered voice. "What do I have to do to scare the wit out of you?" the fairy growled angrily.

He managed not to chuckle at her tone. It would have terrified anyone, but he knew she was only half serious. She had that impish glint in her eyes. The raven turned man sat up and his eyes met hers. He knew she was in the mood to banter, and he was all too happy to oblige.

"Forgive me, but I can't really bring myself to see you as fearful when you are in fact so beautiful," he replied smugly.

Maleficent rolled her eyes and did her best to push back the blush she knew was coming. If she didn't know better, she could have thought he was actually _flirting_ with her. Now that she thought about this, it wasn't the first time he was so daring while speaking to her. His growing boldness was likely a side effect to the cuddling and she should have put an end to it quite some time ago, but she decided she didn't mind as long as it stayed in the nest.

It started one evening, during his report, when he described how the queen looked noble and elegant compared to the king, saying she was still not as gracious as certain queen fairies. Back then, she didn't get the hint and completely ignored his blabbering, like she usually did, and it took her some time to realise he was actually talking about her. Since that, he had let slip a few hidden compliments from time to time, but it never had been so obvious. She knew she should tell him off this moment, but she couldn't find the resolve to do so. His sweet words were oddly comforting to her ears, even if she couldn't bring herself to truly believe them.

"Maybe I should change you into something slimy to get rid of your impudence," she wondered aloud, eying him with a devilish sparkle in her eyes.

" _Or_ you could say 'Why, thank you very much, Diaval, you don't look bad yourself'," he replied with a girlish voice, mimicking her imperious tone.

She nearly snorted at his voice. He was ridiculously funny sometimes, it almost made her forget about the throbbing pain in her back. She tried not to wince, but her discomfort must have somehow showed on her face, because his eyes went from mischievous to worried.

"Mistress? Are you alright?" He asked, concern lacing his voice.

Her stern mask was back in the blink of an eye and she raised a defying eyebrow at him. No, she wasn't _alright_ , and no, she didn't want _anyone_ to help her. The only thing she wanted right now was to be left alone. Couldn't he do just that? How hard was it to just ignore her agony, like everybody else? A second later, a wisp of golden magic escaped her fingers, and a huge stack of snow fell on the raven-man, soaking him wet from head to toe. She realised the pain was making her even more quick-tempered than usual, and she immediately regretted directing it towards the only soul that genuinely cared about her.

The fairy's blank expression remained, but a gleam of amusement danced in her eyes as she watched her outraged companion brushing the snow off of him. She helped him to get rid of the snow, ignoring his endless moaning about grumpy fairies and catching a cold.

"What did you do that for? I was just worried," he sulked as she used her magic to dry him and their soaked nest.

Even if her back was on fire, he knew his mistress was too proud to let it show, let alone ask for the balm, so it was his duty to talk her into it. However, when said fairy was as impetuous as she was, it was very likely that it would end badly for him, and the snow was really not the worst that could have happened. He would have to be persistent and gentle but not pressing.

"It's not your place to worry about me. I can handle myself just fine," she replied through clenched teeth.

He refrained from rolling his eyes. Of course she could, but it didn't mean she had to, especially so soon after her recovery. He was nonetheless happy she hadn't used the fact that she would feel uncomfortable or insecure with him applying the balm on her as an argument. At least as soon as they would go past her pride, she would surely agree.

"I know that, but it doesn't mean I can't help, to make it easier," he explained with a soft voice.

He wanted to push more, if only to end her pain, but he knew better. At this point, if he were to insist, she would close up completely. She needed some time to gather her thoughts and let the information sink in.

"How about I go fetch us some food?" He asked, assuming she wished to be alone for a while.

In all honesty, she wanted nothing more than to send him away, but it wouldn't be right. He was still recovering and should rest. She reached for the bag in the hole of the trunk.

"Stay. Balthazar brought us food."

He nodded and didn't protest. If she really wanted to be alone, she would have sent him fetch the food anyway.

They ate in a comfortable silence, Diaval working on his board, and Maleficent deep in thoughts, fighting against the ache in her back. She was looking absently in the general direction of her pet, her back pressed against the trunk – as if to punish it for the torment it was putting her through. She considered asking him for the balm. A part of her craved his soothing hands on her sore back, but her pride was irrevocably against it. She would not show any of her weaknesses. Even to him. Even if he had seen them already.

She yawned and reached to unwrap her hair, in the hope to try and get some sleep, but vivid pain suddenly shot through her back and she hissed, half curling up on herself.

Alarmed, Diaval's gaze was on her in an instant. He slowly shifted closer to her, eyes filled with concern. A few minutes later, her body was still as tensed, and he couldn't stay silent anymore. He had to help her.

"Mistress? Are you in pain?"

The question was the most stupid ever asked, but he figured if she admitting it to him that would be a good first step for the proud fairy.

A short silence ensued. Her head was bent down, avoiding his worried eyes. Almost imperceptibly, she nodded once. At this point, she couldn't help it; her body was acting on its own, trying desperately to get rid of the pain by any means possible, and Diaval had already proved himself more than once to be quite the painkiller.

"Will you let me help?" he quietly asked.

She closed her eyes and didn't move for a few seconds, before pivoting to the side so he could access her back and slowly reaching for the balm in the hollow of the tree to give it to him. Her mournful gaze finally met his, and he bowed his head humbly. His fingers gently stroked hers as he took the balm, and he settled down behind her.

"I wish you could stop thinking you're weak whenever I help you," he whispered, slowly unlacing her gown.

Maleficent took a deep breath and looked down. She felt weak every single day, she thought with bitterness. It didn't have anything to do with him.

The raven-man exhaled heavily at the sight of his mistress' back. He had to admit, he was afraid the infection was back, but it wasn't. Instead, the tops of the stumps were now covered with a thin layer of reddish skin, and her milky white back was only a bit flushed around the scars. He made a mental note to take extra care of this part, guessing that was where the pain originated.

As usual, he started massaging her lower back and climbed slowly. He was careful to read every flinch, every gasps, every tilt of her head and every breath of relief from her to apply the balm as gently as possible. Her skin was as soft and silky as he remembered, and he took pride in being the only living creature that ever touched it so thoroughly. He had always known he was a bit special to her, but it was those moments that made him realize that the bond they shared was far deeper than any other she had. He quite liked that, as it was the exact same for him.

A few minutes later, her back muscles were almost relaxed, but before he could finish with her nape and shoulders, she moved to lie down on her stomach.

"Mistress?"

He assumed she had enough for one day, and withdrew his hands. He only hoped he managed to ease her pain. What he hadn't planned, however, was her answer…

"I'm just tired. Keep going. Feels good," she said in a sleepy voice.

God, and how good it felt! She wondered how on earth she could have been foolish enough to say no to this, and was most pleased with her servant's stubbornness, for once. Not only the pain was going away under his fingers, but her back was actually starting to feel good, lulling her into a drowsy state. In a way, she hated to be so not in control with herself, but she trusted Diaval with this, and as she felt the exquisite goose bumps blooming in her back under his touch, she couldn't care less, anyway. She was amazed at how good he had become at this. He was firm and soft at the same time, reverently blessing her skin with his tender caresses.

She closed her eyes, trying to picture the dumbfounded look on her servant's face when she would give him the balm without so much as a fight next time she'll be in pain, and she smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to DancingKitKat again for beta-reading and special thanks to Sachia for commenting, hoping you liked this chapter as well ;)


	16. Worth Living

Maleficent was floating on the verge of slumber as her servant’s hands were traveling across her bare back. He had been at it for nearly one hour, diligently melting away her knots, when she heard him whisper:

“Mistress?”

Maleficent forced herself to remain still. She knew he wanted to be sure if he should keep going, something she preferred not to be answering. Of course, she should have stopped him quite some time ago, but something inside her craved for his delightful caresses to continue just a bit longer. When – to her enjoyment – he kept massaging her even though she didn’t answer, she wondered how he would behave around her if he thought she was asleep, and kept pretending deep slumber.  
Eventually, he stopped and laced her gown back. She heard a rustle of fabric and felt something covering her. A small smile tugged at her lips as she realised he was actually tucking her into bed. It amazed the fairy how attentive and devoted her servant was to her, even when he thought she wasn’t aware of it.

“Sweet dreams, Mistress,” he whispered fondly, sending a warm feeling through her chest.

To be honest, it felt quite good to be cared for. Even though she didn’t trust him enough to have actually given in to slumber, she appreciated his attentions. It felt like each time he proved his dedication and selflessness, her resolve to never trust anyone ever again would crumble tiny bit by tiny bit. That simple fact terrified her, but also gave her hope. Hope for a better future. Hope that maybe she wasn’t broken beyond repair after all. Hope that one day, she could give him the trust he deserved.

Slowly, she opened her eyes to watch him. He was seated against the tree trunk next to his reading things, and a familiar piece of paper was in his hands.

“Do you know what it says yet?” she asked rather loudly, startling him in the process.

Diaval turned to her quickly and was glad to note she looked much better. The pain-contorted expression she has been trying to hide before had vanished, and he was even sure he spotted a glint of amusement in her eyes when he jumped upward.  
Her frown reminded him she was waiting for an answer, and he indulged at once:

“I do and it’s pretty worrying, Mistress. Shall I read it to you?”

She moved to sit right next to him so she could see the source of his concern. Weirdly, she found herself totally at ease, even though their legs and shoulder were almost touching, and she wondered when exactly she had started to feel so comfortable near her servant.

The fairy gestured for him to start reading, and listened to his steady voice. He was reading slowly, following the symbols with his finger, only stumbling over a few words here and there. The paper was in fact from a group of men – fervent supporters of King Henry in his war against the Moors - called “The Rightful King”. They didn’t recognize Stefan as their true ruler because he lied when he had claimed to have killed Maleficent, and they intended to get to the throne by killing the fairy themselves and bringing back her head. The paper was to look for new members with the same convictions and inform people that any information on the fairy’s whereabouts would be highly rewarded. 

“What do we do, Mistress?”

Maleficent sighed and leaned her head against the hard wood behind her, closing her eyes. She hadn’t expected that turn of events, and she wasn’t sure how to handle it. As if she had the time to deal with another bunch of wannabe kings. Was power the only thing that mattered to humans, really?  
She cracked an eye open and met the onyx orbs of her servant. She could tell he was worried.

“What do you have in mind?” She asked absent-mindedly.

“I should go investigate.”

Another sigh left her. It made sense, but they simply had no time to spare for that, especially these days.

“I want you here for the patrols, Diaval,” she reminded him sternly.

“I’ll go on the evenings,” he replied at once.

“What about the castle?”

Since the first snow he was going to the castle on the evenings, after patrolling most of the day with her, as diner time seemed to be one of the best moments to gather gossips and news. They decided their evening strolls would resume after the snow was gone.  
It was much more taxing for him, but in exchange she granted him one or two days off per week.

“The danger doesn’t come from there at the moment,” he pointed out grimly.

She turned her head and focused her gaze on the raven turned man. He didn’t understand, did he? She didn’t care about danger. She didn’t care about getting hurt or even dying. The only thing she lived for right now was to make _him_ pay. She wanted him to beg for her forgiveness, she wanted him to be humiliated in front of his people, just like she was, every single day. He had been too coward to kill her that night, and she hated him for it. She would make him dearly regret having not spilled her blood when he had the chance. She would have preferred death a thousand times over the horrifying feeling of betrayal and the agony - and shame - of being grounded forever. The worst part was that she was pretty sure she still loved him at some level, and for that she hated herself as well.

“I don’t send you there because of the danger. I send you there because I need information in order to get to _him_ ,” she gritted through clenched teeth.

“And how will you get to _him_ if you’re killed by those men?” He said, mimicking with ease the disgusted tone she used to designate the king.

“What makes you think I’m afraid of filthy humans? I am a powerful fairy, Diaval, not a stupid _bird_ ,” she replied haughtily.

His feather would have been ruffled by her words if he was in raven form, but in his human form, he managed not to let show his indignation. He had been expecting a mean comment from her anyway, as it seemed to be her way of shutting him up whenever she didn’t want to look a truth in the eye. That _and_ changing him to his raven self, he mused. 

“Yet, if it wasn’t for a _stupid bird_ , you may not be here and well right now,” he sulked moodily.

She didn’t say anything - didn’t even change him - and only scowled at him. The raven-man knew it was a good sign. At least she recognized he was right and was giving him a chance to convince her.  
However, something else was worrying him: She didn’t seem to have a problem risking her own life in order to get her revenge on the king. That thought alarmed him a great deal, and he suddenly remembered something the healer fairy that helped saving Maleficent had told him before disappearing in the forest: _Don’t let her give up on life._ He had been too panicked to understand the extent of it at the time, but now he did. Back then; she didn’t fight the infection directly because she had given up on life. Even now, the only thing she lived for was her revenge, and he failed to see how that could make things better. Of course, he didn’t blame her for it. Revenge wasn’t in a bird’s nature, but who knew how he would react if he was to lose his wings? He was pretty sure he would want to die, but seeking revenge? With his new human emotions, he weirdly found himself wanting to hurt the king for what he did to his mistress, so he couldn’t be certain. In any case, focusing only on that wouldn’t bring back her wings nor her happiness.  
He was willing to risk being a dog to tug her out of it, if only a little, just enough to make her also focus on healing and moving on. Maybe staying a bit more on the ground with her would help… Making her laugh would definitely help. He had to think about it…

“Mistress, I don’t need to go to the castle every day to know what’s going on in there. I could only attend the weekly meetings and go investigate on this group of humans the other days,” he suggested meekly. 

“If I had known you would get lazy with time I would have disposed of you sooner,” she replied with an annoyed voice.

He rolled his eyes at that, determined to ignore her petty accusations.

“They will come back and try to hurt you, Mistress. We can’t just ignore it and wait for them to strike.”

 _We._ She wondered when exactly he had started to think as a we. The thought of it warmed her chest. It was nice to know someone was on her side when everybody was fleeing for her darkness.

Diaval didn’t push the matter when she fell silent and took the paper from his hands to look at it pensively. He knew she would need some time to ponder over what had just been said, and even more if she was to change her mind about it.

“Where is my name?” she inquired curiously after a moment, her eyes scanning the piece of paper.

She didn’t really care, but it would be a most welcomed distraction from her tormented thoughts. Not to mention it could be useful if she encountered human’s writing to be able to recognize her name.

“It’s there, you see?” he answered at once, pointing to a long word. “Wait, I’ll write it down for you.”

Before she could stop him, he had grabbed a blank piece of paper and was busily writing on the wooden board, all previous bickering long forgotten.

“See, Ma-le-fi-cent,” he enunciated while following the word with his finger.

She realised it was the first time he’d ever said her name. She liked how it had rolled off his tongue almost reverently.

“What about _your_ name?”

He wrote down a few symbols and showed it to her. He liked teaching her stuff for a change. It made him feel clever. Of course, he knew he was a clever bird, but he usually felt anything but in his stupid human shell. Knowing how to read was helping coping with it.

“It’s shorter,” she remarked, wondering if there was a reason to it.

“It’s because when you say Maleficent, the sound of it already is much longer than when you say Diaval. The writing follows the speaking, sort of.”

She nodded pensively. For all the time he had been complaining about learning how to read, he seemed to be very much at ease with it now. The fairy’s curiosity was piqued ever further when his eagerness to display his new skill pushed him to show her a paper with the alphabet. He took his time explaining how humans were in fact using these fundamental symbols to write words, and that they also represented sounds.  
As soon as he stopped blabbering, she took the paper from his hands and looked at the one he had been writing on to try and recognize the letters of her name.

“So this is ‘ma’?” she asked, pointing to the M.

“Almost. It’s mm, like Maleficent, Mistress or Moors. I’ll show you,” he said, writing the three words on the paper.

He then followed the words with his finger, reading them out loud for her.

“Hmm. Interesting...” she replied after a while, deep in thoughts.

She was growing alarmingly curious over such a meaningless thing, but she couldn’t help it. She always had been curious about humans’ practices, mostly because her appearance was in some ways closer to humans than it was to fairies. 

“You know, I’m pretty sure you could learn it even faster than I did,” he offered meekly.

She raised a magnificent eyebrow at that. 

“Why would I want to do such a thing?” she asked contemptuously.

He shrugged, eyes on his reading things as if avoiding her piercing gaze. 

“Could be useful. You know, like a hidden talent or something. Also, I was going to start writing down the recipes of the two balms I know about. Could use some help…”

She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. 

“Now, why would you do that?”

He shrugged again, a habit that was slowly growing to get on her nerves.

“Just so I won’t forget…”

He didn’t know if it was because of the continual shape-shifting or if humans were naturally prone to it, but he had found himself forgetting stuff, lately. A raven’s mind felt things more than it knew things, so he never had that problem before. Mostly it was just some details he didn’t care about, but he didn’t want to take the risk of forgetting anything important. 

“I’m not sure I want to learn something so specific to humans.” She said, pronouncing the last word like it was some kind of insult.

He nodded knowingly. If it hasn’t been for his natural curiosity and the need to protect her, he would have never even considered going through the trouble of learning something from humans.

“I understand, but upon observing them a lot, I think some of their ways have certain merit, and could be useful to us at some extent.”

She wasn’t sure if he was talking about the two of them or about the Moors in general. In any case, that was certainly an interesting idea...  
Unlike the humans, the fair folk was a community of oral traditions and customs. No fae creature ever felt the need to produce any kind of written record. The young were taught by the older, and that was as far as it went. Knowledge was therefore often forgotten and rediscovered over the centuries.  
Now, using human’s writing to their advantage could help strengthen and preserve magic knowledge. On the long run, leaving a legacy to the future generations about something as trivial as her story could even prevent them from repeating the same mistakes. 

“You really want to teach me this, don’t you?” She asked with an exaggerated sigh.

“You’ve taught me lots, Mistress. I’m only looking forward to return the gesture,” he replied with a lopsided smile.

Of course, he was hoping that would also serve as a distraction from her revenge plans and help her focus on getting better.

“I see…” She said absently.

Her lips flattened to a thin line as she thought about his crazy idea. It wouldn’t do any harm to try, after all. Of course, the prospect of him becoming insufferably smug could make her regret her decision, but that was nothing she couldn’t deal with.

“Alright. What do you propose I start with?”

He literally beamed at her, and before she had the chance to change her mind, he was shoving the board, papers and quill in front of her.  
She winced in disgust at the feather.

“I do hope you’re not expecting me to _touch_ this, do you?” she warned, narrowing her eyes at him.

She was well aware that it was the only way he knew for humans to write, as it wasn’t the first time they talked about it, but that was just too weird for her. If she was to learn writing, she would have to find another way to do so. Fortunately, Diaval was smart enough to not push the matter.

“Well, in this case, you could show me on the alphabet what letters are in your name, then,” he suggested, taking the quill out of her sight.

To her surprise, the whole thing wasn’t that boring at all. For each letter she found, he would tell her the sound of it and some examples of words starting with it. Soon after that, they did it again and this time he asked her to find some examples as well. Then they did it with his name, and with various words related to the Moors that he would write for her. In fact, it felt very much like a game, especially when it escalated to who’s going to come up with the most words for each letter. She had to admit it was quite amusing. 

By the time they grew tired of it, the sun had started to sink into the horizon. Maleficent was unwrapping her hair with a soft expression, pleased by the way the day had turned out. 

Next to her, Diaval couldn’t take his eyes away from her peaceful smile while he was stacking the board and papers. She looked so serene… It was mesmerizing to see her like that. She still hadn’t laughed – although she had been very close to when he mock-fainted because she had noted that his name started with the same letter as the word “dog” – but she had chuckled several times, even jabbed him playfully in the side when he was being silly. He was pretty sure this kind of moments could help her heal, if only she allowed it to happen again.

“You know, with proper training, I bet you could read before the end of winter,” the raven turned man offered with a smirk.

She looked at him and her lips curled up a bit. She let her hair loose and put the fabric in the hole of the trunk.

“And what would I read, hmm?” 

He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

He had never really thought about that. Until now, the paper he had was more than enough to practice reading, but it was true they would get bored of it pretty quickly.

“We could go snatch some books from the village. They may have books about why humans are so mean and stupid,” he sniggered.

She chuckled lightly at his words, unconsciously leaning into his shoulder. How come today was so nice? How come she could still find the energy to enjoy herself after everything she’s been through? After losing her wings? Something inside her made her think the answer was in the raven-man sitting next to her. It was the first day they were spending together in the nest, after all, and it was the first day in a very long time she had been this close to being happy. It had to be somehow related.  
Without thinking, she lowered her head to his shoulder, ignoring the usual urge to keep a safe distance between her and anything looking like a human male. Her servant may look like a man, but he was in no way one. She still didn’t know exactly what he was to her – Her servant? Her pet? Her friend? – but she knew he was hers, and that was enough to soothe her fears for now.

Diaval frowned, a bit taken aback by her sudden display of affection. He was pretty sure she didn’t need any comfort right now, but they were in the nest, so he figured the rules applied all the same. He tilted his head into hers in response and leaned against her body.

“This is nice,” she whispered after a while, almost too low for him to hear.

“It is, Mistress,” he murmured fondly.

At his words, she sat up straight, and before he could curse himself for whatever he said to break the moment, she turned toward him. Their eyes met. He recognized there the longing and vulnerability that seemed to appear only when she wanted to be in his arms. Diaval obliged at once, encircling her in his arms as she curled into his side. He breathed into her hair, revelling in the blissful feeling that came through his chest whenever she was cuddled against him. He had never been able to fully comprehend that feeling. Birds couldn’t feel much apart from their needs - need to eat, need to drink, need to sleep – and the only thing he was sure of was that he needed her as much as he needed air to breathe.

Maleficent sighed in contentment, her head peacefully resting on his shoulder. Even if she couldn’t begin to understand how it was possible, her servant had made her forget about her burden today. At some point, she had been so caught up in his explanations and their silly game that Stefan’s betrayal had just slipped from her mind, and she had felt a little more like herself. On top of that, she couldn’t feel the dull ache in her back, and the weather was so awful she would have never gone for a fly even if she had her wings. She could just close her eyes and feel the feathers in his hair to pretend they were hers. To pretend it was her wings cradling her into an embrace right now. Well, in a sense, it was…  
Her fingers absently traced the scar on his chest from the opening of his shirt to his neck. He giggled and fidgeted under her touch.

“Mistress, it’s ticklish,” he protested feebly

She stopped and looked up at him with a raised eyebrow and defiantly impish eyes. A second later, she was resuming her ministration, this time tickling more than stroking his skin.

His light chuckle turned into laughter while he desperately tried to prod her fingers away from him. She stilled when he ended up holding her hand to prevent further tickling, and guided both their hands to rest on his chest.

Her playful smile faded and a serene expression took over her face.  
When she had lost her wings she thought nothing would be like before, she thought she wouldn’t be able to feel any positive emotions anymore so she buried herself in her duties to the Moors and plans for revenge. However, today had proved her she has been wrong. She was enjoying her day, probably for the first time since it happened, and she wanted to do this again. Not only the tickles or the reading, but the whole day with him. It was a most welcomed way out of her misery, and it was like she had found some pieces of herself along the way.

“We should do this more often,” she whispered to herself.

“Tickling? Bah, you only say that because I can’t defend my poor self,” he teased warmly.

The fairy rolled her eyes. Leave it to Diaval to find an excuse to complain needlessly whatever the circumstances. She wasn’t even talking to him.

“Who said you couldn’t?”

The raven turned man tilted his head and frowned at her, searching on her face a hint that she wasn’t serious. There was none. Her tiny smile was genuine and her raised eyebrow was playful.

“Alright. Then, we should most definitely do that more often,” he said smugly.

She sighed, irritated at finding a part of her wanting the exact same thing.

“Whatever. I wasn’t talking about that in the first place.”

He refrained from asking what she was talking about and tucked his head back against hers. If she wanted him to know, she would have told him.

They didn’t move at all for a while, only relishing in each other’s warmth, until boredom got the best of Maleficent and she started playing with his hand. Naturally, Diaval obediently followed her impulse. He was particularly reactive to her touch, responding to even the slightest of her moves, and she liked that very much. She found herself tracing the lines of his palm, while his fingers were delicately exploring the back of her hand.

“I like your hands, Mistress. They’re just like mine,” he declared suddenly.

She raised an eyebrow at that and joined their palms as if to compare them.

“Yours are bigger,” she observed nonchalantly.

His index finger stroked hers reverently.

“Yours are softer.”

She mimicked his movement and smiled, before pulling his hand on his chest and coming back to her senses.

“Is there a point to all this or are you happy just stating the obvious?”

He tilted in head in a very birdlike manner. He was only trying to voice his thoughts to her, just like she had asked him to do. To be honest, ever since they discovered that some other humans wanted to hurt her, he had found himself weirdly uncomfortable in his human skin, and the fact that she hadn’t changed him back since the day before didn’t help either.

“I mean it’s quite comforting to find myself looking a bit like you in this shape.”

She gave him a sceptical look, as if waiting for an explanation.

“It proves I’m not as evil as the monsters who put these traps there for you,” he explained gloomily.

He didn’t really think that he was like them, but in this shape, a part of him felt closer to them than he was to her, and he didn’t like that. It just didn’t feel right.

“You’re far from evil, Diaval.“ she said quietly. “Therefore I’m not sure looking like me would make you less evil, you know,” she replied with as much indifference as she could manage. 

He snuggled closer and intertwined his fingers with hers in an attempt to ease her mind.

“I know you’re not evil, Mistress. You may want everybody to think that, but you can’t fool me,” he teased with a slight smirk.

She ignored the fact that he had overstepped the rules and stayed silent for a while, avoiding his gaze. One must be blind or stupid to not see she had turned evil a long time ago, consumed by hatred, bitterness and revenge. It had been her intention in the first place, to repel everyone around her. It was the only way she knew to protect herself from further harm. 

“What makes you think I’m not evil?” She asked on an even tone.

There were so many things he could pick to prove his point, but only one she couldn’t deny openly.

“You care for every living soul in the Moors.” He paused, before adding cautiously, “You care for me.”

Her gaze met his wary eyes and she saw on his face the silent question.

“I do,” she admitted faintly.

She averted her eyes, as if ashamed of what she just revealed. The raven turned man let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding and squeezed her hand comfortingly. Those two little words hadn’t been easy for her to say, but they meant the world to him. 

“I care for you too, Mistress,” he confessed in a soft voice.

Her emerald eyes met his onyx orbs once more. He looked into her soul, thinking of everything she was to him, and hoped his human’s features were sharp enough to show her just how much he meant every single word.  
Diaval’s heart skipped a beat when she smiled at him. She believed him. He smiled back and broke eye contact, only to hold her tighter and instinctively nudged at her head with his.

They were growing close, that was a fact Maleficent couldn’t deny anymore, but what surprised her most was how she actually felt about it. She wasn’t reluctant, or suspicious, she was… Well, she was ok with it. She could use a friend, after all, and it wasn’t like he was really human or anything.  
She nudged back and settled her head in the crook of his neck, like she used to do it. Without her wings – without flying – she thought life was not worth living, but she realised she had been wrong all along. Nothing could make up for the loss she suffered, of course, but she could hold on to other things. She could enjoy Diaval’s presence, their witty bickering, their tender moments, and let him awaken the parts of her she thought were lost forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks to Sachia for commenting and lots of love to DancingKitKat, my lovely beta! For those of you who are still wondering, yes Maleficent is going to curse Aurora and all but not entirely for the same reasons as in the movie (and it's gonna be in quite some time)


	17. The Flying Stars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Thank you so much for your patience! In this chapter I felt like introducing some Moors' mythology. Tell me what you think ;)

It took less than a week for Diaval to fully recover from his wound. Obviously, he had spent most of his convalescence with his Mistress, either limping with a walking staff as a man, or – when she was in a good mood - comfortably tucked between her palm and her side as a bird. But as much as he liked spending time with her, being unable to do anything for so long when they knew a danger was coming has been difficult for him, and he had actually been glad when she had told him he was finally fit to go back to spying.

The first evening, he went to the castle as usual, and the following one, Maleficent finally agreed to send him spying on the men that called themselves "The Rightful King". It hadn't been easy changing her mind, but once the raven-man had mentioned they wouldn't hesitate damaging the Moors in order to get to her, she hadn't needed much more convincing.

The raven glided down and spotted his Mistress near the lake as expected. He cawed to announce its presence, before landing gracefully on her staff. A second later, he found himself crooning under her touch, light fingers gently stroking his feathers.

Diaval was pleased to find her in such a good mood, today. Usually, she would go straight to business, changing him in mid-air and sending him tumbling to the ground if necessary.

She eventually changed him to his human form, and asked what he saw.

"They realised their trap didn't work and are meeting in two days to find another plan. All the members are supposed to attend, so we'll know exactly how many they are," he replied, brushing off his coat.

"Good work, Diaval."

She watched him puff his chest at the praise and her expression softened. It had always amused her how his birdlike habits were taking over when he was in human form.

The fairy raised her gaze to the sinking sun on the horizon. They must hurry, or they'll be late. She rarely took the time to attend gatherings since she proclaimed herself Queen of the Moors, but this one required her presence. Of course, it had nothing to do with the urge to show Diaval a little bit more about her world…

She shoved a bag in her servant's hands and walked toward the forest. "Let's go get some food. We're eating outside tonight."

Diaval trailed after her as usual, raising an eyebrow at her words. They were technically eating outside most of the time, but he figured she meant not at the base of their tree.

"Are we having a picnic, Mistress?" he inquired with an enthusiastic voice.

"I guess you could call it like that, yes," she answered absent-mindedly.

The raven turned man smiled happily and crouched in front of a couple of mushrooms sticking out of the snow. He removed them carefully from the soil like she'd showed him earlier this week, before putting them into the bag and trotting after her.

Ever since he got wounded, gathering food and eating together had become a daily routine. Before that, they would only occasionally share their meals, each finding their own food separately. Diaval was quite pleased with that new development, as he got to spend much more time with her. However, he was trying very hard not to think of the underlying meaning of providing food for each other as a raven, knowing that his Mistress wasn't aware of the implications of such a gesture for birds, and wouldn't be happy with it anyway. It wasn't the first time he felt that, to be honest, and he found it all rather disconcerting. Maleficent was no raven, and yet he recently realised that he wouldn't want any other female as a mate. He believed it was because he spent so much time as a human now, and the fact that they were sometimes behaving like actual mates from a raven's perspective didn't help either. In any case, he was hoping their new habit wouldn't change anytime soon.

They spent almost an hour gathering acorns, mushrooms, nuts and seeds near the border. It was dusk when they finally headed back toward the heart of the Moors.

"Gather firewood now," she commanded, taking the bag of food from him.

"Of course, Mistress."

The further they walked into the Moors, the more Diaval's concern grew. They hadn't encountered any sign of life since they went to fetch the food. Normally, at this hour, the place was bursting with activity. Even in winter. Even with Maleficent nearby.

"Where is everyone?" he asked as they passed by her throne.

"You'll see," she replied mysteriously.

Suddenly, the fairy halted and turned toward him. She had wanted to try something for a little while, and now seemed to be the perfect time. It just didn't feel right anymore to keep treating him like a mere servant when he had become so much more to her. So yes, the whole thing was mainly because of what was happening between them in the nest, and it would go against the rules she had so carefully set up with him, but he deserved the attention.

She observed him as he stopped a few feet behind, tilting his head in silent interrogation.

"Come. Walk with me," she demanded, gesturing for him to join her side.

He frowned. She never asked anything like that before, quite the contrary. Wouldn't that be awkward for her if any of the fair folk were to see them walk side by side? On the other hand, no one was around, so…

"Well? What are you waiting for?" she asked imperiously at his hesitating.

The hint of a smile appeared on Maleficent's face when her raven hurriedly rearranged the pile of firewood in his arms and caught up with her. She could tell he was delighted.

Nonetheless, when they reached the clearing where all the fair folk seemed to have gathered, Diaval automatically fell back behind his mistress. She had been kind enough to invite him to walk with her as an equal, but surely she didn't want everyone to see how fair she was to her lowly servant. However, he was proven wrong when a wisp of golden magic made him jump upward. He looked up and noticed Maleficent seemed annoyed with him. The raven turned man smiled sheepishly at her in apology and reclaimed his spot by her side. Well, if she didn't mind others seeing them, he was certainly not going to complain…

Looking around, Diaval noticed they'd rarely been in this part of the Moors. Into the clearing, several groups of fairies were chatting together, while others were trying to dry the snow and set up what looked like leaf-made teepees. In the far right side, Wallerbogs were – as usual – caught up in a ruthless snowball fight. Balthazar and some of the border guards were also present and seemed to keep watch around the place.

Silence gradually fell as the pair progressed toward the other fairies. Maleficent stopped at the center of the field and dropped the bag of food she was holding at Diaval's feet. Normally, at this stage, she would make a speech to warmly welcome everyone and thank the stars for looking after them, but tonight she couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead, magic erupted from her free hand, and she directed it to the ground, melting the snow instantly. Her magic roamed across the clearing in gentle waves, drying snow and soil in its path.

Diaval was truly amazed by the power of her magic, sometimes. It was like anything was possible with her. He watched, agape, as the snow was replaced by grass in the broad clearing. Next to them, a large circle of stones has been revealed, and the fairy gestured for him to place the firewood he was holding inside of it. The raven-man blushed slightly as he felt the eyes of every single creature of the Moors on him as he did so. Fortunately, it didn't last long, and the border guards soon joined in to add entire bundles of sticks and twigs to the pile.

Once it was big enough, Maleficent released a wisp of magic to start the fire, and the fair folk hesitantly came closer, whispering among themselves. Diaval noticed with a pang at his heart that despite everything Maleficent was doing for them tonight, they were staying at a good distance from her. If only they realised how kind and caring she still was, she wouldn't be so lonely, so feared. But for some obscure reasons, that was how she wanted things to be, and he respected that. With his scintillating self around, she couldn't be that lonely, anyway, he tried to reassure himself.

She caught his eye and from only a subtle tilt of her head he understood that it was time for them to leave. He was getting good at reading her, he thought proudly, and it made the silence between them even more comfortable, like it was their own little universe. After months of observing her constantly, he could sometimes recognize the faintest hints of emotions when anybody else would see her usual mask of indifference. Spending all his time with the fairy for the last week, he had even been able to master the art of understanding her without words. He had never realised before how much more there was to human communication than just talking, and he quite liked it. Grabbing the bag of food, he hurried after her and found his place by her side.

Maleficent turned to leave and heard Diaval catching up with her. This time, she was glad to note that he wasn't trailing after her like he always used to. Maybe breaking this old habit wasn't going to take so long after all.

The crowd of fairies parted to let them pass, bearing the same wary expressions that had welcomed them a few minutes before. She was relieved he was by her side. His presence was just as comforting and soothing as she had expected it to be, and she needed it right now. The last time she attended this celebration, she had her wings, she had friends and a family. The time where she had been loved and respected seemed so agonizingly close, but here she stood tonight, crippled, grounded, feared and pitied by all. She had lost everything that ever mattered to her in such a short time...

A heavy sigh left her without warning and she felt Diaval's shoulder brushing against hers. She didn't know how, but he always knew when she was brooding, and seemed determined to tug her out of it as often as possible. She looked up at him and he sent her a warm smile. They were now at a good distance from the other fairies, and she allowed her lips to curve up slightly in response, knowing that no one but him could see it.

The fairy came to a halt a few steps later and turned around. Near the fire, the fair folk had started piling up food.

"We'll settle here for the evening," she announced, taking the bag from his hands.

She reached inside and took out a few mushrooms and a handful of nuts.

"Here, bring these to the pile of food they're making," she said, giving him the food.

"Yes, Mistress," he said, before obediently heading back to the fire.

She kept a keen eye on him while preparing their settlement. She had been secretly wondering to what extent her raven had been able to socialize with the fair folk. Maybe he knew each and every one of them even better than she did, or maybe he never managed to bond with any of them because of her. She wasn't sure which possibility was worst, to be honest. She watched as her servant made his way to the pile of food, the fairies parting cautiously to let him pass. Apparently, they were avoiding him just as well. It was her fault, she thought. She had dragged him away from his kind and into the Moors to be as feared and rejected as she was.

However, right after he added their food to the pile, a pixie came out of the group and called out to him. Diaval grinned and greeted her. Maleficent narrowed her eyes, wondering what on earth was going on, when they both turned their attention toward her. She recognized the pixie as Lily, she was the healer fairy that had helped saving her, she had learnt. Diaval occasionally talked about her. He seemed to be spending some time with her on his days off. The pixie noticed her insisting gaze and bowed shyly in acknowledgement. Maleficent barely had the time to raise a suspicious eyebrow, before they resumed their conversation. She shook her head and turned her eyes back to the task at hand. She'll question her servant in due time about that peculiar attitude.

A few minutes later, Maleficent was discreetly watching her servant from the corner of her eye while he was bidding farewell to his pixie friend. The dark fairy had noticed the accusing looks Knotgrass, Flittle and Thistlewit were giving him. She hoped – for their sake - that those three were not up to something. They had that irritating habit of seeking quarrel at every occasion.

When Diaval came back, she was seated on a large leaf-like blanket on the floor and was adding twigs to a small fire. He held his gift behind his back and was pretty sure he was grinning like an idiot, but he didn't care. He knew his Mistress would be most pleased.

"Sit down," she commanded immediately. She waited until he obeyed, before adding, "You certainly took your time," she scolded as she turned her head toward him, chin high and shoulders stiff.

She frowned at his joyful smile and strange demeanour. She just expressed her deep annoyance at him and here he was, sitting next to her as if he was the happiest man alive. It wasn't like him. Then she noticed that his hands were unusually behind his back, and she realised he was actually holding something.

"What are you hiding?" She inquired suspiciously.

His smile went wider and he hurriedly explained, "Lily told me that if I bring food to the pile, I have to take some from it as well. Like a trade. So… I got you grapes," he said excitedly, revealing the fruits.

The fairy pressed her lips together in a thin line to hide her smile. How kind of him. She hadn't eaten anything sweet for months, and she had to admit that she longed for it. Too bad he would have to return it. Come to think of it, that must have been why those three blasted pixies looked so annoyed at him. Their favourite fruit was grapes as well if she remembered correctly.

"This comes from the Evertrees, Diaval. As you know, they're supposed to provide food for the smaller fairies only. Take it back at once."

The Evertrees were a magical garden in the heart of the Moors that provided food all year long. However, the limited amount of food it gave was reserved to those who couldn't provide for themselves during the harsher times. Diaval always thought this to be particularly unfair to his Mistress. Pretty much everyone else got to eat delicious juicy fruits in winter and she was stuck with survival food, which was most of the time close to disgusting.

"I know, but it was Lily's. She told me I could take it, and that tonight was all about sharing, anyway. Isn't it?"

That was true, but it didn't change anything. No matter how evil she grew, she would never pick up on the other's limited supplies, thought the dark fairy as her gaze wandered toward the huge pile of food next to the crowd of fairies. Or maybe not so limited… Maleficent couldn't help but eye the fruit with envy and made her best to hide her inner struggle. A second later, she decided that if the original owner of the fruit didn't mind, she wasn't going to object.

"Fine," she conceded after an exaggerated sigh. "If that can make you quit whining, I suppose I can oblige. Put it with the rest of the food."

She had been a bit harsh, but the last thing she wanted was for him to think he was becoming good at changing her mind.

The raven-man happily put the treat in the bag and lay down on his back, hands under his head. Today had been exhausting, and he was glad he could finally relax. He had forgotten how demanding surveying was. By now when he went to the castle, he knew exactly where and when to go in order to get information, but it wasn't the case with the village on which he had to spy today. He guessed it would take some getting used to. Before he could let his mind wander too much, he heard Maleficent address him in a whisper, "Thank you, Diaval."

A lopsided smile appeared on his face as he closed his eyes. He felt the grass under him getting thicker and much more comfortable than normal, but pretended not to notice her magic at work. She never liked drawing attention whenever she did something nice for someone. Instead, he only purred softly, "Anything for you, Mistress."

They stayed in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, enjoying the cool air of the evening as well as their close companionship. Maleficent was busy putting a spell on a couple of sticks to make them immune to fire, before putting mushrooms on them.

"Aside from lazying endlessly," the fairy started on a mocking tone. "I'm sure you're wondering what we're doing here," she said matter-of-factly.

He smiled and opened his eyes to look at her. He rarely questioned her out loud, but it felt kind of good to be granted an explanation nonetheless. It made him feel like he mattered.

"I assume it's a Moors' gathering party?"

The fairy nodded, before adding, "It is called the celebration of the Flying Stars. It is tradition to gather around a fire and share food while observing them."

"Sounds like fun. When does it start?"

"Soon. In the meantime, let us eat. That is, if you think you can muster enough strength to sit up," she sneered haughtily.

A chuckled escaped his throat. She was being awfully playful tonight, much to his delight. Maybe he should bring her grapes more often, he thought.

"Oh, I don't know. I'm pretty comfortable down here," he taunted, raising a suggestive eyebrow.

She rolled her eyes at him, hiding the slight blush that threatened to come to her face. Now she was sure he had noticed the grass growing under him. How embarrassing. She knew she shouldn't have left her soft side take over, but what else was she supposed to do when he was being so thoughtful to her? Well at least, he'd had the sense to not make a big deal out of it.

The raven turned man eventually sat up and they ate together. They were sitting at arm length, close enough to share their food while keeping a respectable distance between them.

They had barely started their dessert when they heard agitation among the fairies nearby. Their eyes shot up at the same time. It had started. Shooting stars were filling the sky, leaving shiny trays of light in their paths. A twinkle of amusement danced in Maleficent's green orbs at the amazed expression on her servant's face. His eyes were wide and his mouth slightly open. He reminded her of earlier this week, when she’d showed him the trick to make the glowing plants glow brighter in winter.

"It's so beautiful," he murmured to himself.

Diaval couldn't take his eyes off of the stars. He stared at them, fascinated, for several minutes, before noticing Maleficent had laid down on her side of the blanket to watch the sky.

Under his puzzled gaze, she answered his silent question, "You should lie down too, or you will hurt your neck."

He nodded and obeyed, trying to dismiss the fact that she just allowed him to lie down next to her in public. He took the grapes she distractedly handed him and they ate in silence for a while. It was only when they finished their dessert that she talked again.

"For fairies, it is common belief that stars are gigantic balls of raw magic, so high in the sky no one ever ventured. Legend says that a very long time ago, one of them had fallen from the sky and crashed on earth. It is said that upon impact, the touch of its powerful magic created the Moors and the fair folk. Since then, once every five years, the other stars are flying closer to earth, in order to watch over the lineage of their lost companion."

Diaval couldn't help but think of Maleficent as the fallen star. So beautiful and powerful, yet separated from her kind and destined to fall down from the sky to her doom. He wouldn't let her crash down. He would slow her fall and finally catch her safely before she could hurt herself, even if it was the last thing he did.

"It's kinda sad," he finally mumbled.

She sighed, shifting to put as little weight as possible on her angry scars, "It is, but so is life. As a token of our respect for them, no flying is allowed tonight so they can have the sky to themselves."

She pressed her lips together, thinking sadly of what her life had once been like.

"I've always found this rule quite distressing," she admitted softly. "I remember my wings itching to take me as high as I could and see them from closer. I guess tonight it won't be an issue," she confided wistfully.

Maleficent hadn't even tried to stop the words when they 'd started to flow out. Deep inside, she knew that sharing her pain with him somehow made it bearable. It felt a little bit easier every time she did so, as Diaval never judged or pitied her. The only fact that any compassion he might have for her would be genuine eased her mind about it.

The raven-man didn't know what to say in return, so they kept watching the stars in silence. However, he couldn't refrain from moving his hand closer to hers until their skins brushed in an attempt for comfort. Such a gesture usually wouldn't be welcomed out of the nest, so he was gladly surprised when he felt her fingers stroking the back of his hand, before settling closer against his.

"It is custom to make a wish during the Flying Stars," she informed him after a moment. "It is said that if enough fair folk make the same wish, the stars so close to us can hear them and their magic can make it come true."

Tonight, she contemplated how silly this custom was, as most of her past wishes included Stefan and true love…

"What are you going to wish for?" he inquired, interrupting her heart-breaking musing. "I could wish the same and we'll have more chance to be heard."

Her fingers moved against his as she replied, "It is sweet of you, but a wish has to be kept secret to have any chance to come true at all."

"I see…"

Well, he had a good idea of what she was going to wish for, anyway. He kept staring at the Flying Stars and wished for her wings to be back. That would at least double her chances.

What he hadn't planned however, was that Maleficent's heart was still too cold to wish for anything except making Stefan pay for his treachery…

They stared at the sky in a comfortable silence for almost an hour. Maybe it was the sight of the shiny balls of light crossing the sky that was making Diaval light-headed, but at some point, he heard himself saying gently, "You know Mistress, from the first time I saw you, I knew you came from the stars."

A sweet smile graced her lips, and at this instant, she wished they were in the nest so she could allow herself to take his hand into hers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked! I wasn't supposed to publish it for another week or two, but I've been rereading all your wonderful reviews and it pushed me to finish it asap. ^^
> 
> Again, many thanks to my dear DancingKitKat for her help and reviews, and to Sachia, Pacoish and Solgress for your sweet reviews, it really does motivates me!


	18. I Love You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! You'll be glad to know that no, I haven't given up on this one just yet! I changed this chapter about a dozen times, so that's why it took forever, but bright side is I have some scraps ready to use for next chapters or other stories. Sorry for the wait, I hope you'll like it.

Only occasional shooting stars were left to cross the sky when Maleficent and Diaval stood up to head back to their tree. By then, most of the fairies were sound asleep under the numerous leaf-made tepees that were set up near the fire. It was custom to be sleeping here tonight, but Maleficent craved to go home, away from any onlookers. She had felt the accusing gazes of Knotgrass, Flittle and Thistlewit all night and she was tired of it.

Diaval caught up to walk next to his mistress as they progressed away from the fire. He still wasn't sure if he was supposed to walk by her side in the future, or if tonight was just special.

They had just reached the forest when the raven-man finally voiced his thoughts.

The fairy refrained from shivering against the cold air of the night and looked in his direction. She had been expecting him to show some hesitation at first - after all, one of the very first orders she ever gave him was to always walk a few steps behind her - but she didn't think he would be so straightforward on the matter. Another proof he was growing more confident in his man's skin. She was just hoping he wouldn't get too bold with time.

"Is that a problem?" she inquired sternly, tucking her coat closer about herself.

"Not at all, Mistress. I only wanted to make sure it would be acceptable for me to walk next to you in the future."

He wondered if setting up this new habit wasn't because of what was happening between them in the nest and if she wasn't breaking the rules in doing so, but didn't dare mention it. He knew it was hard enough already to keep things as normal as possible when they were sharing such sweet moments together.

"It would be acceptable, indeed," she confirmed quietly. "How am I supposed to enjoy your company when you're walking so far behind, anyway?" she said with a hint of irony.

Diaval looked up at her and chuckled. Her expression was softer than usual, and despite her impassive features, an impish glint made its way into her eyes. He couldn't take the silly smile off of his face at the thought that she openly admitted she enjoyed spending time with him.

"Worry not, Mistress, for I shall never deprive you again of my ravishing self," he declared dramatically.

She rolled her eyes at this, but couldn't prevent her lips from curving up a bit. At least she had managed to somehow justify her decision without any obvious mention of their growing bond, or no further questions asked from the raven-man.

"Vain bird," she accused haughtily.

Half an hour later – and after a quick stop to the water hole – they finally reached the magical moss that grew all around their home. It was spreading only a few meters from the tree, but Maleficent was confident it would eventually cover the whole clearing. She shook her head with an amused look at Diaval, who was walking quite weirdly next to her, his eyes fixed on the soft texture as it gleamed under his feet. It has been almost a week since she'd installed it and he kept doing that every single evening.

The two of them came to a halt in front of the rowan tree and Maleficent raised her eyes toward the last of the falling stars. The night was still young, so they could spend some time reading their new books, as they usually did at this hour. They had acquired them a few days ago, when Maleficent had sent Diaval to the village in his human form with some of the jewels he's been stealing in the castle while spying. No need to say the old book merchant he'd met ended up giving him as many books and parchments as he could carry in exchange for the precious gems. It had been a nightmare for the fairy to create a proper place to store them all, but it was worth it. Whenever she was reading with her raven, she would forget she was crippled, if only for a few moments.

A light breeze made the fairy shiver, and she turned to her servant. She'd been cold pretty much all night, but until now, there wasn't much she could have done about it. She couldn't wait for the hot tea and her servant's closeness to provide the warmth she was craving for.

"Boil the water and join me upstairs," she commanded, handing him the canteen of water.

The raven turned man smiled and nodded. With the cold weather, his mistress was usually drinking hot tea before going to bed in order to get a bit warmer, and since he was now spending his evenings with her in human form, he had naturally volunteered to take care of it. However, even though she'd accepted his offer, she was still very suspicious about the whole thing, watching him intently while he prepared it, and not touching her cup until he has taken a gulp or two of his.

Again tonight, he could feel her piercing gaze from behind the climbers of the nest. He didn't mind, really. He had nothing to hide from her after all. He just wished that one day she could trust him enough to completely relax around him. It was a lot to ask, but he could feel her trust growing a little bit more with every passing day, so there was hope.

The dark fairy was observing him as he carefully chose the leaves she preferred for her tea, and sent a few sparks his way to light the fire next to him. A few minutes later, he was up in the nest with her, pouring the hot beverage in the two cups she presented him.

"Come sit with me Diaval, will you? I feel a bit chilly tonight," she offered as he put the water down.

"I thought I saw you shivering," the raven-man murmured, while sitting against her.

At the time, he had been sure that he'd just imagined it, as she usually wasn't as sensitive to the cold as his human form was, and he'd been fine all evening.

"How come you're cold, tonight? Everything alright?" he asked, before pulling the cover on them both.

The fairy frowned at his behaviour but didn't protest in the slightest. His body was warm against hers, and the blanket actually made her feel quite cosy. Her pet definitely knew how to get comfortable.

"Fairies tend to be cold when they are running low on magic," she explained matter-of-factly, choosing not to mention the other embarrassing side-effects that could occur if her magic levels were to go any lower.

The raven turned man raised an eyebrow at that. He didn't know everything about her magic, but he was quite certain it would take more than what he witnessed from her today to consume it all.

"Surely drying that clearing earlier didn't drain it all, did it?" he inquired before taking a few gulps of his cup.

Maleficent waited for him to swallow the hot liquid before sipping at her own. She knew she was playing with fire ever since she granted him permission to prepare her tea on a nightly basis, but at the time, monitoring him from the warmth of the nest seemed like the best solution. If it hadn't been for this bloody snowstorm and Diaval asking so sweetly if she wanted him to go down and take care of it, she wouldn't be in this grand mess in the first place. At least, in sharing the beverage with him, she had found a way to be sure he wouldn't poison her without drawing too much attention.

She turned her gaze back to him and remembered he was waiting for an answer.

"Of course not," she scoffed haughtily. "I've been magically crafting an object today, that is all."

Well, that was certainly intriguing. He knew changing his raven self into any other living creature was as easy as breathing for his Mistress, so he didn't understand how crafting a simple object could be so draining.

"I thought it didn't require much of your magic to change the shape of something," he said, puzzled.

"It doesn't, indeed. However, it is not about changing something into something else, but creating a magical object from non-magical elements, which is very demanding. Most fairies cannot do it."

The dark fairy took one long gulp of her tea, enjoying the warm sensation that went through her body, and noticed her servant's confused expression, "It would be like changing you into a magical creature with its own magic," she added for his sake.

At this, Diaval nodded pensively. During his daydreaming, he had sometimes wondered how it would feel to be a fairy and use magic, just like his Mistress, but never dared mentioning it in front of her. He wouldn't be of any use to her in that form, anyway.

The fairy interrupted his thoughts as she reached for something in her pocket from under the blanket.

"As a matter of fact, I would like you to try it out," she requested, giving him the mysterious object.

The raven-man observed with interest the piece of wood she handed him. It was in fact a small stick with a pointed tip, where the colour was slightly darker. He touched the root-like limbs on the other side of it and it wriggled slightly.

"What is it?"

"A writing tool, to replace that dreadful feather of yours."

Diaval chuckled and took a last gulp of his tea before putting down the empty cup. He concentrated on adjusting his grip around the little stick and drew an invisible letter into thin air. He knew she would try to come up with something. She'd been asking more and more questions lately about how the quill worked, and he never saw her so interested in something she claimed to despise so much. Well, apart from the king of course.

The raven reached up to touch the big bud above them and watched with a wry smile as it opened, casting a glowing light on them - Maleficent had been kind enough to enchant it so it would respond to his touch, allowing him to close and open it at will. He then grabbed a piece of blank paper and wrote her name along with five dots below it. He paused to touch the ink. It was amazing how fast it had dried. By the time Maleficent had finished her tea, he had written about ten words with the same five dots below them, while she was explaining him how the stick produced its own ink whenever it was planted on soft soil and properly watered.

"Alright, your turn," he said, setting down the board and paper in front of her.

The dark fairy glanced curiously at her servant, but took the writing tool nonetheless. Until now she never tried writing. She wasn't even sure how to hold the stick properly, to be honest. Her discomfort must have shown somehow, because Diaval hurriedly explained everything she needed to know, delicately nudging her fingers around the piece of wood into the right position.

"You should start with the word 'Moors', it's the easiest," he advised.

Still troubled by the feeling of his gentle hand on hers, it took her longer than usual to find the word in question. Since when had his touch become so natural? So… Welcomed?

Chasing away those thoughts, the fairy carefully drew the first letter. It was tricky to form the same smooth lines as he had, but she did her best.

"It doesn't look like yours at all," she said bitterly after writing the whole word.

"It takes practice. You should have seen my first attempts, they were pitiful."

Of course, his first scrawls hadn't been as bad as Stefan's, and compared to them both, his mistress' letters looked quite all right. He gave her some advice on how to improve as she reproduced the word next to the second dot, and by the time she'd finished writing all the words, her writing looked much better already.

"If you allow me, I can go to my nest and let you get some sleep, mistress," he offered gallantly as she stifled a yawn.

"I'm fine, Diaval," she groaned. "Besides, I want you here with me, tonight," the dark fairy added nonchalantly.

The raven-man pressed his lips together in a tiny smile and nodded thoughtfully. He'd expected this. With her magic nearly depleted, she would need safety and warmth, and he was honored if she could find this in his lowly self.

The fairy exchanged a meaningful look with her servant and he snaked his arm around her in response. She closed her eyes and leaned into him, his embrace warming her to the core.  
She was thankful he didn't ask what form he'll be sleeping on tonight, because to be honest she hadn't figured out that one yet. She relished in the warmth his human body was providing her, but her magic being so low a part of her also was very wary of this proximity. She wouldn't be able to wake up at any sign of danger like she used to with her magic at full strength, so she would have to trust and rely on him entirely this time. She wasn't sure it was wise…

"Let's read the book, shall we?" she said, in the hope to chase away those dreary thoughts.

Diaval reached for the book about cooking recipes they had started and opened it. His voice was slow and steady as he read, and he was following the words with his finger. The moment was so soothing, Maleficent could have fallen asleep in a minute's time if the raven-man hadn't been stopping and turning to her every few seconds, waiting until she deciphered the word above his finger, before resuming reading.

However, after a while, she felt herself irresistibly drifting off to sleep on his shoulder. His voice seemed to draw away and her thoughts became foggy. Something wasn't right. She couldn't move a muscle, and the last time she had felt this weak and vulnerable was the night her wings had been ripped from her body. Back then, it had been because of the drink Stefan had given her. What if… No. Diaval couldn't have done the same to her. Or could he? He had repaid his debt after all. What if he had stayed and tricked her into trusting him while waiting for the best moment to strike? What if at some point he had realised that it would be more profitable for him to betray her rather than serve an evil fairy forever?

Hope blossomed in her heart when he discarded the book and called for her, but a part of her was certain it was merely to check if the drug had worked. She's been such a fool to trust him. Why did she have to think he was any different from the other men? From Stefan? She should have known what he really wanted from her didn't have anything to do with loyalty or affection. Her weariness turned into fright when she could feel his body pulling away in order to lay her limp form on her stomach. She didn't even care how she knew what was happening to her body while she slept. She was trapped. She had no idea of what was to follow, but she knew it wouldn't be pleasant. He would never have drugged her if his intentions were good.

Her fears were confirmed when she heard a blade being unsheathed, followed by the acerbic smell of iron.

But then a detail came to her mind. He already had the opportunity to harm her once - kill her, even - and instead, he had saved her life and taken care of her. Why betraying her would suddenly be profitable to him? Nothing significant had changed since then. Moreover, what was left for him to take from her, anyway? It didn't make any sense, and as she realised the last thing she could remember was nodding off on his shoulder, relief went through her like a refreshing breeze. Nothing of this was real, she was just having a nightmare.

The fairy turned to the man with dull eyes. "Don't bother. The real Diaval would never hurt me," she said with as much confidence as she could manage.

At this, he raised an eyebrow and tilted his head to the side. His expression was so alike that of her servant, it made the doubt creep back into the heart of the fairy. No. Diaval was from the wild. He never cared about trivial things such as gold or power, she tried to reassure herself, but upon hearing him chuckle darkly, it barely soothed her fears…

The raven-man raised an eyebrow when Maleficent failed to read the word he was pointing to. He's been sure she knew this one. He turned to her and smiled as he found her sound asleep on his shoulder. She looked so peaceful he decided against lying her down in the nest in case it would trouble her sleep. Instead, he closed the book and reached for the flower above them with his free hand. It closed slowly, leaving the darkness of the night take over. Diaval shifted into a more comfortable position against the sleepy fairy, before pulling the blanket more tightly around them both. He yawned and leaned his head against hers, but as he was about to close his eyes, he felt her body tense.

"N-no. Please," she gasped, her breathing getting faster and faster.

She was having a nightmare, Diaval realised. He held her tighter and whispered soothing words to her ear, but it only seemed to make things worse. She whimpered and struggled weakly against him. Before he could think of anything to chase away her inner demons, she woke up with a start and he let go of her obediently when she jumped away from him.

"Mistress - it was just a nightmare!" He blurted out when she raised her hand to unleash her magic at him.

She stopped the motion, but narrowed her eyes at him while trying to catch her breath. She needed some time to adjust to reality after such a fright. Thankfully, her raven's kind eyes and gentle demeanor helped her forget all about the man in her dream.

She'd been right, she realised with relief. Diaval wouldn't hurt her. He could have taken advantage of her weakness tonight, but he hadn't moved an inch since she fell asleep. He truly cared about her. She could tell by the way he was looking at her with such concerned eyes.

"Diaval," she finally mumbled, lowering her hand.

However, cancelling the spell she was about to throw at him ended up being much more taxing than she thought, and it swallowed the last of her magic reserve. She was suddenly seized by dizziness and her body quivered uncontrollably. She couldn't remember a time when she'd been this low in magic. It was getting harder and harder for her mind to form coherent thoughts, and after a few seconds, the only thing she could register was that she needed his warmth more than ever.

As if he had read her mind, Diaval extended an arm toward her invitingly. He had noticed her shivering, and whether it was because she was cold or still shaken, he was certain holding her close would help. That is, if she would allow it. She's never been very trustful right after one of her night terrors. A second later, he smiled when she leaned back against him without the slightest trace of hesitation. Given the situation, he was glad she felt safe enough around him to do so.

"Are you alright?" he inquired softly.

 _I am now_ , she thought, but merely nodded against him. She took a deep, shaky breath and reveled in the warmth and safety he provided her. That was unbelievable how much better she felt already after only a few seconds in his arms. Her heart rate was almost back to normal, and her shivers had subdued. She smiled faintly upon feeling his warm breath fanning over her hair and his thumb stroking the small of her back soothingly.

A familiar warmth blossomed in her chest, and for the first time, she recognized it to be affection for him. A few month before, that could have scared her to the point of sending the offending creature away, but tonight she was quite at peace with it. She may be caring about him the way she once cared about the King, but her servant was nothing like Stefan. He was always there when she needed him, for one, and he never left her to go live in some ugly castle. He had chosen to give up his life to stay with her and had kept serving her even when she'd given him back his freedom. That fact only proved he cherished her way more than Stefan ever had.

The fairy closed her eyes and let his heartbeat lull her into a drowsy state. She was so tired. So cold. Why was she still cold? Diaval was holding her tightly against his side and she still felt like she was freezing from the inside. She needed more of him.

The raven turned man inhaled sharply and his body went rigid when she suddenly moved to sit sideways on his lap and curl up against his chest. What had gotten into her? She'd never made such a bold move toward him before. Even in their rare moments of cuddling, she would always act with measure, always careful of not crossing any line, wary, even. But now? Now, she was throwing herself at him with an eagerness he never witnessed from her. Not that he was complaining, but it wasn't like her at all, and he wasn't sure he was totally comfortable with that.

"M-Mistress? Are you sure you're quite alright?" He asked, still in shock.

She yawned in his neck while absently dragging one of his arms around her waist. He's been so startled by her behaviour he hadn't known what to do with them on the moment and it's only when she reached for them that he realised they've been stupidly hanging in the air all this time.

"Sweepy," she mumbled after a satisfied sigh when he finally held her back.

She was sleepy? Well, that wasn't surprising, considering the late hour and the fact that her magic was almost depleted. Could it be the reason behind her acting so weirdly, all of a sudden? Maybe that was another side-effect, just like being cold. There was still so much he didn't know about her kind. In any case, he was certain that wouldn't last, and in the meantime, his mistress would want him to prevent her from doing anything too silly.

"I'm sure you'll get a better sleep if you would just lie down in your nest, Mistress," he tried to convince her.

"No," she replied decidedly.

The commanding tone of her voice in that simple word dissuaded him from insisting further, as it made her sound very much like herself again. Besides, it wasn't such a big deal. They were only cuddling, and it wasn't like they never did it before. Of course, tonight seemed more intimate than usual, but he figured no matter how light-headed she could feel, she wouldn't be acting like that if she didn't wanted to on some level.

The raven turned man shivered in pleasure when her fingers started tracing the scars on his chest. Their eyes met and she smiled at him sweetly. Diaval never saw her so relaxed and carefree. The sight of her was so beautiful, he couldn't refrain from grinning back. Then her fingers followed the scars up to his neck, brushed his cheek, traveled to his forehead, and finally went down to rest on the tip of his nose.

"Mine," she slurred in a sleepy voice.

He chuckled and gently tugged her hand from his face to take it into his. "Yours, Mistress. Always," he promised.

She smiled up at him again, a feeling of giddiness growing steadily within her. She liked those words. She wanted just that. She wanted him by her side forever. _Till death part them_ , she mused, refraining a giggle at the thought of the human custom. That brought her eyes to his lips. She didn't know where that urge came from but she wanted to taste them. She leaned forward slowly, but he stopped her barely inches from his face.

"Mistress. You're not yourself," he warned her.

He knew the meaning behind touching lips for humans and fairies, and he didn't want to take advantage of her. She trusted him and unlike _some human_ , he wasn't going to let her down. Besides, the whole notion of kissing was totally baffling to him. What was the big deal with exchanging saliva with someone else, seriously?

His reluctance surprised Maleficent to the point that she found herself tilting her head to the side in the same way her raven-man often did. She certainly felt like herself, thank you very much - a bit dizzy, granted - but if Diaval thought they shouldn't kiss tonight, she trusted him. However, the fairy didn't pull out, and they looked at each other for a few seconds, their faces only inches away, before she slowly closed the gap between them once more, this time to lean her forehead against his. He may have had a good reason to refuse her kiss, but she knew for a fact that he couldn't resist this. Their heads gently rubbed together in a familiar dance, breath fanning over flushed skin and noses brushing. By the sky, it felt so good she had to bite her bottom lip not to moan. Why on earth weren't they doing this every single day? She gasped and pulled back a bit as her drowsy mind provided the answer to that question. Stefan. True love. Betrayal. Wings. She looked up at her raven's concerned eyes and gave him a tiny smile. Diaval wasn't like Stefan. At all. But before she could lose herself pondering over their differences, her servant's nose brushed tentatively against hers. The dark fairy couldn't help chuckling at his puppy eyes and eagerly resumed their raven-cuddling. It was incredible how such a simple gesture could make her feel whole again after everything that had happened to her.

She found herself wishing they'd met before her wings were stolen. Back then, her heart had been light. It would have been easy to love him. It would have been easy to be happy with him… She internally raised an eyebrow at such foreign thoughts. Maybe she wasn't quite herself after all.

Diaval couldn't help a blissful sigh as his Mistress kept nudging at his head with her own. They've been tenderly cuddling for a few minutes now, and it felt like warmth was radiating from his chest in slow, delightful waves. _I love you_ , he thought numbly, and froze when he realised the words actually went past his lips in a whisper. Fortunately, the fairy didn't seem to have noticed. She shifted slightly on his lap to find a more comfortable position and settled her head on his shoulder. The raven turned man let out a relieved breath. That's been close. What has he been thinking? He couldn't blurt it out just like that. He had that inexplicable feeling that those words were a big deal to humans - and fairies. He wasn't even sure what it meant, to be honest, but it felt right, like all these times his human mind had managed to put a name on something he didn't know as a bird. He would tell her, eventually, but not today.

The raven-man let go of her hand to tuck the blanket back up her shoulders and observed the sleeping fairy for a few seconds. She looked so innocent and vulnerable in his arms, he couldn't understand how on earth anyone could be such a monster as to want to hurt her. Even in the form of a man - the same kind that was trying to hunt her down - the only urge he had toward her was to hold her close and spill kisses down her face like a fountain. He nearly rolled his eyes at such peculiar thoughts. Being in the skin of a human was so weird, sometimes…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As usual, many thanks to DancingKitKat for making sure the story is written in proper english. And thank you all for your lovely reviews. So the next chapter will definitely NOT take as much time as this one, and in the meantime I might publish an additionnal story from the scraps I told you earlier. Also I have big plans for Reborn, but I haven't started writing more than the general plot of a few chapters.


	19. Grief

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! I absolutely wanted you to have a new chapter to read for christmas so I went crazy and didn't wait for beta-reading xD Please do tell me if there are any mistakes :)

Diaval was flying toward the border, enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun on his feathers. Spring had finally taken over winter and the last of the snow had melted away, leaving behind a myriad of lush grass and flowers. In the Moors, mating season was just as lively as it was in the human kingdom, even despite the darkness hovering above the fairy land. The trees seemed to gleam with life, proudly sporting their new set of leaves, and magical creatures could be seen flying happily in every corner. The only one who didn't seem to enjoy the atmosphere was his mistress. Seeing birds and fairies flying wildly all day when she was stuck on the ground must be hard on her. She's been gloomier than usual, more distant, and the raven hated having to watch her sink into loneliness and depression without being able to do anything to help. He knew she needed the comfort his human form could offer, but for some reason, she never came to him. As a matter of fact, ever since that night when her magic was low, it looked very much like she was avoiding any kind of interaction with his human self, and he couldn't begin to understand why. Could she have heard him when he said he loved her? He had no idea how she would react to that piece of information, and that made him all the more nervous about it.

In any case, he was thankful she still spent some time with him when he was a raven, else he would have gotten awfully lonely. The problem was, he was starting to miss his human form a bit. Not that he grew a liking to those long limbs and featherless body, but being human made him feel closer to his mistress, and he liked seeing the world from her perspective. Furthermore, he missed holding her in his arms, the touch of their hands, and their sweet moments of cuddling. He had a feeling she was missing it too, but he knew better than to mention it to her. With a bit of luck, she would soon realise it on her own, and things would go back to the way they were.

The raven finally entered the human lands, and it took him only a few minutes to reach his destination. He cawed indignantly upon landing on a sticky substance on the windowsill of the tavern. It seemed the members of The Rightful King had a thing to meet in the dirtiest places possible. Thankfully, the window was open so he wouldn't have to go inside - no doubt it was even filthier. Diaval froze as he recognised the gruff voices of the men he's been spying on for some months. They were talking about his Mistress. He scooted closer and hid between relatively clean pots and mugs left out to dry in the sun. They were saying she was too powerful to get to her directly, especially if she stayed in the Moors. The raven blanched as one man suggested that they would hire a specialist in hunting down magical creatures. He didn't even knew _that_ existed. He'll have to warn his mistress about it. Luckily, the others ended up scolding their companion, saying that they couldn't trust a stranger. After a while of bickering during which Diaval thought he was actually going to fall asleep, another man brought up an idea that made him particularly uneasy.

"Enough of this! We need a plan! I heard she has a raven doing her bidding. I say we work on capturing it. That will lure the she-elf out of her blasted magic land, and then we'll have a better chance of taking her down," the man - that seemed to be the leader of the group - said on a commanding tone.

His chest tightened in fear when the others seemed to agree and started debating on how to catch him and what kind of atrocities they could do to him without killing him. At some point - when the idea of plucking his feathers one by one until none was left was evoked - the raven thought he was going to get sick. And the fair folk had the _gall_ to call _his mistress_ evil!

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind sent a pot crashing to the ground. Diaval barely had time to duck out of view before someone gathered the rest of the utensils and closed the window. Damn, now he had to find another spot. But the moment he took flight to see if he couldn't sneak back inside by the rafters, the wind picked up and angry clouds darkened the sky. The raven had seen enough of the world to know for sure this sudden change of weather wasn't natural. One glance in the direction of the Moors confirmed his suspicions. The clouds were in fact converging above the magical land, and flashes of green lightning had started to appear in their mists. Only one being had the power to conjure such a storm, thought the raven in alarm as he rushed towards the Moors.

Any other bird would have struggled against the strong wind, but Diaval was an accomplished flyer and knew how to use it to his advantage. He soared the sky, drifting that way and that, letting the air currents carry him home at tremendous speed.

Once there, he was glad to note that most of the magical creatures were already safely sheltered. He spotted Lily waving at him from inside one of the tree hollows that served as a shelter for pixies and was about to caw in response when a yell rang out from above and he saw a tiny pixie being helplessly blown away. Without a second thought, he rushed upward and swiftly caught her waist in his talons. Upon closer look, he realised she was in fact the smallest fairy he's ever seen. _Probably one of the young_ , he thought, mindful of his hold on her dainty frame. The raven was about to drift lower to get the little one to safety, when he was hit in the face by red sparks and almost let her go. Despite the wind and the sparks flying around him, he managed to hover in place long enough to locate the origin of the attack. Three pixies were yelling at him to let go, spouting nonsense about fairies and raven food. Next to them, Lily was doing her best to divert most of the sparks while shouting at them to stop. How could those three be too daft to understand he was only trying to help? He dodged easily a few more projectiles on his way down, and gently dropped his charge into Lily's arms, before landing on the edge of the tree hollow.

The raven glared defiantly at his retreating attackers - now they weren't so brave as to attack him, were they?

"P-Please, don't eat us," one of them squealed, terrified.

He couldn't remember their names, but he didn't like those three, and he knew the feeling was mutual.

"Don't mind them," Lily said softly, causing the raven to turn to her. "Thank you Diaval."

The raven nodded and took flight again. He didn't have any more time to waste on those three nitwits. He had to find his mistress.

Unfortunately, the fairy didn't want to be found today, and had pulled into the darkest part of the forest, in a place where the fair folk rarely ventured. She desperately needed to be alone. The sight of the other fairies buzzing and soaring happily around her all day was one she could not stand anymore, especially when she was just coming to terms with the fact that she would never fly again. The full impact of her loss had never been as evident as it was these days, with the inviting blue sky and the warm breeze brushing over her skin. Before that, it had been easy to take refuge in denial. She's been injured, sick, and then winter was not the best season for flying, so staying on the ground wasn't as agonizingly disturbing as it was now.

The wind picked up, making her hair flapping wildly behind her. She reluctantly looked up and sighed wistfully at the sight of the powerful storm unfolding above the Moors. She missed the sky. So much that it made her want to scream in despair and tear down that world where she didn't seem to belong anymore. The dark fairy had bottled up her feelings for far too long now, and her magic was lashing out on its own in order to keep her from losing her mind. She couldn't remember a time when she lost control that way, but again, grief and pain had never threatened to swallow her whole like today. Nevertheless, she did her best to take a hold on her magic, if only to prevent it from inflicting too much damage on the Moors and its inhabitants. Some of the fair folk would certainly complain about her ruining the fine day at some point, but she couldn't bring herself to care. None of them could understand what she was going through.

A treacherous tear rolled down her cheek and she cursed herself for being so weepy. _So much for becoming as cold and unfeeling as ice_ , she thought numbly.

Suddenly, her head snapped upwards at the sound of a concerned caw, and she turned the other way, hastily hiding her tears. _Diaval_ , she realised with irritation at the wave of relief that went through her. No matter how much she had tried to distance herself from him and push her feelings away during the last few months, it didn't look like anything was working. Her body seemed stubborn to relax whenever he was close, and this longing to be in his arms never seemed to go away. But she had to persist, didn't she? The night of the Flying Stars, she could clearly remember how her uncensored thoughts had made it clear that she was actually starting to fall for the damn bird. By the skies, she had almost _kissed_ him! At the time, that prospect had terrified her enough to gradually avoid his human form as much as possible, hoping that would lessen her feelings without drawing too much attention, but it didn't change anything. On the contrary, that left her a bit more frustrated every day. The best way to soothe her pain was within reach - she only had to give her servant a look and he would be holding her the very next second - but she couldn't allow herself this relief. Not when it made what was left of her heart flutter anew with affections for him.

The dark fairy took a minute to compose herself and looked up at him with her usual icy stare.

"I do not need you now, Diaval. You are dismissed."

But the impertinent creature instead flew to a branch in front of her. He cawed softly, his attitude meek and hesitant. _He saw the tears. He wants to help_ , a part of her kept repeating, but she was now used to ignoring the voice.

"Leave me alone before I turn you into something unpleasant," she rumbled dangerously, even though her hand was itching to grant him his human form.

Diaval could have snorted at the threat. No matter what she changed him into, if she thought he was going to just leave her here all alone to cry, she didn't know him very much. He couldn't stand seeing her so upset, especially when he knew he could soothe her pain in a heartbeat, if only she would allow it. He wasn't sure if it was her pride getting in the way or something else. In any case, whether she was willing to admit it or not, she needed him right now, and he would do whatever he could to help.

The approaching rumbling of thunder made Maleficent look up at the sky, fresh tears gathering in her eyes. How come she could still feel them? How come she could swear she only had to throw herself from a cliff and let the air currents lift her up to be able to fly again? She breathed shakily at the sight of the dark sky and the howling of the wind, remembering how on such stormy days she used to disappear well above the clouds in order to bathe in the sun for hours while everyone was soaking wet below. She would always marvel at the power contained into those clouds, and watching the turmoil and darkness inside them from the calm and sunny sky above never failed to give her the chills. It was like being on top of the world, watching the greatness of nature unfold before her very eyes. On days like this, she'd felt like she was capable of anything.

Today, however, the only thing she could do was to take shelter before the heavy rain drenched her to the bone. Maleficent forced back the lump in her throat and resumed her walk. After a couple of steps, she noticed Diaval was following her quietly, flying from tree to tree, and a weary sigh left her. Couldn't he understand she didn't want him to see her like that? She walked a bit faster in the hope to get some distance between them, but the damn creature kept up with her easily. Of all the birds she could have chosen from, she had to get stuck with the most stubborn one, she thought angrily. Was leaving her in peace too much to ask? Couldn't he fly away to find himself some shelter from the storm like a proper bird?

As more tears fell from her eyes, the sound of his anxious caw infuriated her to the point of changing him into a dog in mid-air. How _dare_ he disobey her so blatantly? How _dare_ he meddled in _her_ life? He was nothing but a servant, and if he couldn't even be just that, she would find another one to take his place, she tried to convince herself. For all her thrashing at him, she couldn't help a grimace at his pained whine when he crashed to the ground, and fastened her pace. She had to be left alone. She couldn't bear to show the extent of her grief to anyone. The fairy barely managed to muffle a sob when she heard him trotting after her, as if his intrusion was somehow pushing the flow of her emotions to get out. She wanted to turn around and yell at him like she never yelled before, but she couldn't trust her voice anymore. Not to mention tears were now flowing uncontrollably down her cheeks. In a desperate attempt to get away from him, she started running. The thickness of the forest and the clouds so unnaturally dark above had plunged her surroundings into darkness, but she didn't care. The tears were already blurring her vision, making her stumble every now and then. She didn't know exactly where she was, but she knew there was a cliff after the forest. Maybe he would leave her alone if she…

But at this instant, she felt a jolt of her magic reaching out to him and she was stopped by a hand catching her arm.

"Mistress," Diaval called pleadingly.

On the moment, Maleficent wasn't sure what had just happened, but upon looking in front of her, she realised the cliff was only a few steps away. Her magic had acted on its own and did what it had to do in order to keep her alive. Any creature possessing magic could be subjected to this kind of survival response if their life was endangered.

The dark fairy took a deep breath and slowly turned to her servant without even trying to hide her tears. She didn't have the strength anymore. She stood before him, as proud and erect as she could manage, and the moment their eyes met, it was like time stopped around them. A flash of lightning danced across their faces, followed closely by a crack of thunder that nearly shook the earth, but none of them seemed to notice. The fairy's stern features softened at his concerned eyes and mournful expression. He looked like he shared her pain. Suddenly, she didn't feel so lonely anymore.

Diaval exhaled shakily when he discovered her puffy eyes and wet cheeks. It was even worse than what he'd imagined. Tears were rolling down her face and her thin frame was trembling with anguish. The raven turned man never saw her so distressed. He looked her over for any sign of injury, but there was none. _She missed her wings_ , he realised bitterly, and his heart instantly ached for her.

All his human instincts were telling him to take her into his arms so he could numb her pain, but he didn't dare make the first move. The last thing he wanted was to scare her away when she needed him the most. He took a careful step forward, watching her face closely, and relaxed when she seemed unbothered by his proximity.

Very slowly, as to give her infinite time to pull away, he reached for her face. The raven turned man honestly didn't know what madness drove him to do that - no doubt it was part of human behaviour to be naturally prone to getting into trouble. Luckily, his mistress didn't seem to mind too much. If anything, she narrowed her eyes and stiffened a bit, but eventually allowed him to brush his thumb over her cheek. Diaval felt his pulse racing as he gently wiped away her tears with as much delicacy as his calloused hands permitted him, revelling in the intimacy of the moment. He could feel the sharp delicateness of her cheekbone and the ethereal beauty of her features under his fingers. By the skies, he loathed the man that dared hurting such a perfect being.

Maleficent relaxed under her servant's touch. His hands were just as gentle and caring as she remembered. She closed her eyes and leaned unconsciously into his touch, relishing in the wonderful feeling that spread from her chest. She'd missed this so much...

The raven brought her back to present time by taking another step forward. He was now standing so close she could feel his warmth. He tilted his head in that infuriatingly adorable way of his and looked at her expectantly. Unfortunately, it didn't do anything to help her condition. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't stop the tears, and it was getting harder and harder to refrain her sobs. Despite her disgust at the idea, weeping away her sorrow now seemed like the only way to get over it, and his presence would help greatly, Maleficent realised, his tender gaze slowly melting away all her doubts. Not matter how alarming her feelings for him had become, she couldn't face the agony of being wingless without his support. Not when spending time with him had proved to be the only relief in her miserable life. She wouldn't let Stephan's treachery take that away from her like everything else, the fairy vowed fiercely. She would just have to find another way to deal with her feelings.

Without a second thought, Maleficent closed the thin space between them and buried herself into his chest. He held her tightly as she wept without restraint against him. She couldn't remember a time when she cried like that, the sobs shaking her so much it was almost painful. She felt like she could have drowned in the agony of her grief if it wasn't for Diaval's strong arms around her. The dark fairy was barely aware of the rain that had started to fall heavily around them and the raven-man tugging her under a tree for protection.

After a while, her shuddering slowly subdued and she could feel his grip loosening up a bit, as if to let her pull back if she wanted to, but the fairy was way too drained to move a muscle. She wasn't even sure she would be able to stand without Diaval's body against hers.

The raven turned man had no idea what he could say to make her feel better, so he kept his mouth shut the whole time and stroked her back in slow motion, letting his hands convey his utter devotion and admiration for her. He wished he could do more... Without thinking, he brought his lips to her temple for an instant and snuggled back against her.

Maleficent frowned when his lips brushed her skin. He hadn't quite kissed her, but it had looked very much like it. It happened so fast she wasn't even sure how she felt about it, so she chose to overlook his behaviour for now and finally let herself relax into his arms. He was warm and safe and so soothing. By the skies, she'd missed this so much…

By the time her tears had dried, the fairy was exhausted, but strangely at peace. Crying had helped her release all the negative feelings she had bottled up for so long. It was like waking out of a long, dark dream to a sun-filled day. As if to mirror her state of mind, the rain had stopped, and a shy sun was poking out of the clouds.

"You smell funny," she mumbled, wrinkling her nose against his shirt.

He chuckled heartily at that, too glad to see she had recovered enough to be in a teasing mood.

"I smell like a dog. Thank you very much," the raven-man shot back sarcastically.

Diaval honestly couldn't care less about the dog incident - at the time, he'd been so worried about her that he'd scarcely noticed what form he was in, anyway - but taunting her and falling back into their old bickering had just been too tempting. He had missed the way they could argue endlessly over the most trivial things. She was smart and witty, and he was charmingly mischievous, so of course, their verbal sparring was always highly entertaining.

He was expecting one of her clever remarks in return, but instead she leaned back to meet his eyes.

"I warned you, Diaval. You disobeyed me," she reminded him sternly, raising a challenging eyebrow.

To tell the truth, Maleficent didn't mind his disobedience that much, and her scolding was more a way to shake off the guilty feeling in the pit of her stomach. She could still hear him yelp in pain when his dog form heavily collided with the floor. And even _that_ didn't discourage him to try and help her. Such a good pet... He's been willing to endure her worst in order to bring her some semblance of comfort. No one ever did that for her. Not even the boy she once loved.

"I did and I would again. Because I _care_ for you," he said slowly, earnestly, and the dark fairy was stunned by the intensity of his gaze.

"Forgive me, Mistress," he added after a moment, stepping away from her and lowering his eyes as if he suddenly realised he'd been holding her without permission all this time.

Maybe it was the way Diaval was doting on her that made her feel giddy, or maybe crying herself to exhaustion had worn out her walls a bit, but she somehow got bold enough to brush the back of her fingers from his jaw down to his chin, prompting him to look up.

"Thank you for being there," she whispered, her features softening.

He smiled at her fondly and bowed his head in reverence. "Anything you need, Mistress."

The corners of her lips curved up a bit, recognizing the pledge he had made to her almost a year ago. Was it only a year? He had become such an important part of her life that it felt like they had known each other for decades. She certainly couldn't imagine a day going by without his companionship anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Thank you so much for your reviews and Merry Christmas to all! ;)


	20. Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Happy Friday! Thanks for waiting, and as always, I hope you'll have a good time reading this!

"Let's gather some food for tonight," the fairy said softly, before heading toward the heart of the Moors.

They walked side by side in a comfortable silence for a while, until Maleficent remembered her servant was supposed to be off spying this afternoon.

"What news of the humans? Have they given up yet?" she asked with a sneer.

At this, he stopped dead with a gasp.

"I have to go back."

"I beg your pardon? You just _came_ back," she protested.

She knew it was awfully childish of her, but now that she'd finally found the strength to let him close again, she wanted to enjoy every moment of his presence.

"They were talking about capturing me to get to you, but then the wind made them close the window, and before I could find another place to listen from I saw the storm and I thought you were in trouble."

Maleficent stiffened and cast a nervous glance in his direction. She was tempted to forbid him to go back, not only for her own selfish desire, but also to avoid any chances of him getting hurt.

"I don't like that," she said thoughtfully.

"Mistress, if you don't send me back we won't know what they plan to do."

The fairy took a few minutes to think this through. It was indeed too dangerous to let them have the element of surprise, and she certainly couldn't afford to watch over her servant all day and night to keep him from harm. Therefore, if the humans already knew about Diaval spying on them they would have set up some of their ugly traps to capture him earlier today. She shuddered at the thought of her precious pet in the hands of those humans, but if she thought about it rationally, she was forced to admit that he should be safe going back.

"Alright, go. But I want you back at the nest before nightfall," she said, granting him his true form.

That would leave him the rest of the afternoon to find out what he needed to, which was more than enough time. She wished he could have spent that time with her, but if the humans were planning to capture him, they had to know what was coming. His safety was more important than any of her petty desires.

She watched him warily as he sped off toward the village, trying to dismiss the feeling of dread that came with the thought of sending him into the midsts of their enemies.

Maleficent was back at her nest shortly before sunset with a bag of food and a skin of water. She was feeling so much better that she had actually spent her afternoon among the fair folk to help fix the damages caused by the storm. Once again, abandoning herself to Diaval had been surprisingly soothing. All her rage and bitterness had been muted, and her sorrow was no longer raw and restless. It was still there, withdrawn into a corner of her mind and waiting for another moment of weakness to strike, but it had been eased into something bearable.

She smiled to herself while dividing the food in two different bowls, glad to share her meals with her raven once again. It wouldn't be easy to deal with her feelings once they would go back to their close companionship, but it was worth the trouble. He would numb her pain with his affection and distract her from the grief, just like he did countless times before. She needed him to play that role, she realised with resignation, else today's drama was sure to happen again.

The fairy glanced up at the darkening sky with a weary sigh. Ever since Diaval went back to the village, she'd been having a hard time chasing away images upon images of her raven in a pool of his own blood, slowly agonizing to death. It had started as one of those silly thoughts so easily dismissed, but now that the sun was almost completely gone beyond the horizon without him returning, her mind was reeling with the worst scenarios imaginable. Unsurprisingly, her distress quickly turned into anger and she silently cursed her servant for worrying her so much.

She had draped her coat around herself and was about to leave the nest to look for him when she saw the familiar shape of Balthazar entering the clearing and walking toward her.

She climbed down to greet him, wondering if he came all the way to her tree only to scold her about today's unexpected storm. The tree warrior's loyalty had never faltered - even when she crowned herself queen of the Moors - but it didn't stop him from reprimanding her like a child whenever he felt the need to do so. Thankfully, he was always careful to wait until there was no one around.

She turned to him only to see an arrow protruding from his extended hand. A few more steps and her insides froze at the sight of the black feathered shape from which the arrow was in fact coming from, and she all but ran to him.

"No," Maleficent whispered brokenly when she realised the bloody lump before her was indeed her dear servant.

No. _Please_. She couldn't lose him. Not after everything she had lost already. Not when she had finally allowed herself to let him close. She reached for his feathers with a trembling hand, ignoring Balthazar's intent scrutiny, and let out a breath she didn't know she was holding when he stirred under her touch. His beady eyes focused on her at once and he chirped weakly. The corner of her lips went slightly up while she scratched at the base of his head in greetings.

Balthazar tilted his head to the side when she murmured reassurances to the wounded bird. He hadn't seen her so gentle and caring since before her wings were taken. It was good to know her old self wasn't as deep as everybody thought beneath the heartless and bitter behaviour.

"I'm going to remove the arrow, Diaval. It will hurt," Maleficent warned somberly.

She examined the wound with careful hands. The arrow was lodged near the junction of his wing and body. The head was broken down easily enough, but caused Diaval to squirm in pain.

"Shhhh. It will be over soon. Don't move," the fairy soothed.

Diaval cawed in distress but forced his rigid body to stay still while she extracted the arrow. The pain in his wing was so unbearable he thought he was going to faint. He could feel himself drifting away as a result of his blood pouring abundantly from the wound, but it didn't last more than a second, and then his flesh was knitting back together, leaving behind only a dull throbbing. He looked up at his mistress and crooned his thanks. The raven didn't know exactly when it happened, but he realised he was now safely tucked in her hands, her thumbs idly smoothing his chest feathers.

"Thank you, mistress," he said as soon as she granted him his human form.

A sudden dizziness took hold of him the moment he was on his feet, but a hand on his shoulder prevented him from losing his balance. Something was passed into his hands and he leaned on it gratefully, before realising it was Maleficent's staff. Then he felt her warm hands pulling at his shirt and froze while she inspected the wound on his shoulder.

"It might scar," the dark fairy remarked, before tugging the fabric back into place and taking a step away from him. "Are you alright?"

He nodded sheepishly and Balthazar nearly frowned at the soft smile the two exchanged. He had never been particularly happy about the young fairy shackling a wild animal to her, but upon seeing them interact together, maybe there was more to it than what he had anticipated. She was clearly relaxed around him, a far cry from the stiff and defensive demeanor she'd been constantly exhibiting ever since her wings were stolen. It seemed the bird was helping her heal, the tree warrior observed approvingly.

"What happened?" Maleficent demanded sternly.

Diaval recognised the fury tightly concealed in her voice and lost no time explaining.

"They had archers waiting for me at the border on my way back. They shot me down but I managed to hide in the Moors. Then Balthazar drove them away and picked me up." He turned to the tree warrior. "Thank you. You saved my life," he said earnestly.

Balthazar only nodded in response and kept his eyes on him for a few seconds, before turning to Maleficent and speaking in the old tongue of the fae. She let out a long sigh and looked warily at her servant while answering, "I know. I'll find a way."

Diaval tilted his head to the side and caught her eye, wondering what they were talking about. Before he could ask, however, she addressed him in a soft voice.

"You need rest, Diaval. Dinner is inside" she said, nodding toward her nest. "Go."

He blinked incredulously, unable to believe his mistress was willing to reveal so openly that her lowly servant was in any way welcomed in her nest. He couldn't help but gape in surprise, until Maleficent raised an insisting eyebrow to remind him he had just been given an order. That greatly helped, and the raven turned man hurriedly bowed his thanks to his mistress and gave a solemn nod to Balthazar, before making his exit.

The fairy and the tree warrior watched Diaval walk towards the nest in an awkward silence. Maleficent was wondering how long it would take her old friend to start reprimanding her about allowing an outsider into her nest so soon after Stephan's betrayal. It wouldn't be his first time acting like an overprotective parent, but that was to be expected as he practically raised her.

Her mind drifted back to reality when she noticed her servant was struggling to climb the tree with her staff and his wounded shoulder. She blew away a swirl of magic and her lips curved up as he yelped in surprise at the gentle nudge that sent him inside.

"Thank you for bringing him back," she said as soon as the raven had disappeared behind the climbers of the ivy plant.

The tree warrior nodded absently in response. He still couldn't believe humans would risk awakening the wrath of the Moors by crossing the border with iron weapons. This kind of incident had not happened since the end of the Dark Days, after most of the Great Fairies were cowardly killed by humans' assassins. Something was going on, and it seemed rather worrisome.

" _The humans are getting bolder_ ," he remarked.

Maleficent met his eyes and recognised the inquiring expression he would use whenever he suspected her to know something he didn't. She sighted warily and didn't think twice before sharing the news.

"They intend to capture Diaval to lure me out of the Moors," the dark fairy revealed quietly.

The tree warrior followed her gaze to the nest for a moment and clenched his jaw. It was indeed very much like humans to use innocent creatures in order to achieve their ends.

" _Would that work?_ "

She turned to him and understood the underlying question behind his words. Would she risk her life to save Diaval? Maleficent lifted her chin and withstood his scrutiny while answering on a defying tone. "Yes."

She was the protector of the Moors after all, and Diaval had become one of the many souls she would defend at her own peril. Wings or not, it would always remain her duty.

The tree warrior averted his gaze and mumbled something in irritation. He wasn't annoyed she cared about the bird to the point of risking her life for him - she would do so for most of the fair folk. That was what protectors like them were sworn to do.

What he was mad at were _those humans_. It seemed they weren't as dumb as they looked, and were starting to realise they wouldn't be able to get to her directly. Such coward creatures. They truly had no sense of honor.

Whatever they were preparing to attack his people, he would make sure the Moors would be ready to strike back. Maybe it was time to remind men what kind of fate awaited unwanted trespassers in the magical land…

He nodded to the young fairy and was about to turn to the forest when he heard her addressing him.

"You don't... disapprove," the fairy remarked slowly.

Maleficent nearly winced at her own voice. She hadn't meant to say that out loud, but she'd been too baffled to hold back her astonishment. The situation didn't make any sense. She knew from experience that when he disapproved of something, the tree warrior was never shy to speak his mind - she lost count of the times he did so as she grew closer to Stefan - so why would he stay silent after finding out she shared _her nest_ with her servant?

She steeled herself while he stared down at her, hoping he would eventually take the hint, ignore her last words and leave, but he had never been one to make things easy for her. After several minutes, she finally gave in and clarified her meaning by letting her eyes travel to her nest, before meeting his once again. His confusion turned into surprise and his expression somehow softened. She hated how the situation felt like she was asking for his opinion, but if she was honest with herself, she was truly curious to know what he thought about her new companion.

" _I do not approve of enslaving innocent birds_ ," he stated with a stern expression.

Maleficent frowned at him. That was something he had told her already. Was it really the only thing he disapproved of concerning Diaval?

"I freed him months ago. He wants to stay," she replied thoughtfully, before turning toward her nest.

A long silence followed, during which Balthazar kept his eyes on the young fairy. She looked wary and uncertain, almost vulnerable. He could advise her not to get too attached, but he suspected it was too late for that. Besides, considering how much her heart had hardened, he wouldn't be the one discouraging any form of bonding with another creature. It could only do her good. Especially since the black bird didn't seem half as untrustworthy as Stefan had been. He wasn't a man, nor did he live among them, and to him Maleficent wasn't just an occasional distraction. He had chosen to serve her over his own freedom, and was spending every single day by her side. Some would say it was because her magic gave him a way to be something more than a simple bird, but from the few times he had overheard him, he could tell the bird cared deeply for his mistress. Maybe even as much as she seemed to care for him.

" _A good lad_ ," he grunted reluctantly, ignoring the startled look his comment triggered in the fae.

He wasn't one to give away praises, but something was telling him that just this once, Maleficent needed him to voice his thoughts. He could tell she was wary of letting the bird close enough to help. She'd been hurt once. She didn't want to make the same mistake again. Unfortunately, in order to patch her wounds, she would need to expose them to a trusted confident, and the raven seemed to be the most likely candidate to play that role.

" _You do what it takes to get better. No more storms_ ," he instructed on a resolute tone, before turning away.

In the end, trusting him or not was her decision and hers only, but this time, nothing would keep him from monitoring the situation very closely.

" _I'll keep an eye on the bird_ ," he added as he disappeared among the trees before she could protest.

Maleficent reeled over to him and was about to give him a piece of her mind about minding his own damn business, but he was already gone. She let out an exasperated sigh. She hated when he did that. Although, she had to admit that it was a relief to know the tree warrior had her back on this. It helped to make peace with her decision of embracing the growing closeness with her servant.

She walked to her nest, still unable to believe she had actually escaped the scolding about getting attached to a foreign creature. Balthazar had accepted the whole thing without so much of a comment and had even implied that he appreciated her feathered pet. She was seriously wondering if this day could get any weirder...

A minute later, the rustling of leaves alerted Diaval his mistress was back, and he respectfully scooted away to a corner of the nest so she could have her space. A few months ago, he would have played his fancy gentleman part to help her in, but after having been banned from her nest for so long, being here somewhat made him a bit nervous. He wasn't sure what attitude to adopt with her right now, so he tried for their usual banter.

"I'm not sure you throwing me inside was entirely necessary," he mumbled moodily.

"Someone had to make sure you got in before morning," she replied, lips curving up slightly.

Their eyes met, and the warmth in there made the wounded raven relax unconsciously. He smirked back at her, all too happy to finally see her in such a light mood.

Maleficent sat down right next to him, ignoring the large space he had left available, and frowned when noticing he had actually waited for her to start eating. She barely refrained from rolling her eyes at his antics and scolding him like a child. He was certainly famished after today's events, but it seemed that spying almost daily on a castle full of pompous lords and ladies had made him too courteous for his own good.

"How do you feel?" asked the fairy.

"Still a bit shaken, but I'll be alright," he provided quietly.

Diaval's heartbeat fastened as she casually leaned against him while reaching for her bowl. Finding her sitting so close had come as a delightful surprise, and he was relieved to see her so at ease with his proximity. It was almost as if the last few months had never existed.

"You're not to fly for the next week," she said, breaking him out of his musing.

"Yes mistress. Thank you for the food."

She nodded in response and they ate in a comfortable silence, exchanging small talk now and then. It was only when his mistress started to pile up their bowls together that Diaval got the nerve to ask the one thing he wanted to know since he came back.

"How do _you_ feel?" he asked cautiously.

Maleficent paused and raised her eyes to meet his. "Better," she conceded softly.

As she literally went from lashing out in agony to quiet contentment, she supposed it was quite the understatement, but he didn't need to know the details. _It might not last long, though_ , a voice reminded her somberly. She tried to focus on cleaning up the dishes in the hope to distract her mind from such thinking, but Diaval seemed to have followed the same line of thought.

"Mistress, please talk to me next time you feel down. Turn me into anything you like best, and we'll find a way to make you feel better. You shouldn't try to go through this alone. Not when you have me."

She nodded, her features softening at his pleading voice. She couldn't believe how desperate he seemed to be allowed to soothe her pain once again. The thought had never crossed her mind before, but it must have been difficult for him to witness her misery getting worse day after day without being able to do anything about it.

The fairy let out a weary sigh. She wished she had realised sooner how much she needed him to ease her sorrow. For both their sakes.

"I will," she replied softly, her eyes meeting his.

Diaval's heart skipped a beat when he recognised the longing in her eyes. He's been waiting for that look ever since spring had started to make his mistress look so miserable. After all this time, he was thrilled that relief finally seemed to be within reach for the both of them.

His movements were slow and his body tense as he rolled back his good shoulder to snake an arm around her waist. The raven turned man was watching her intently, ready to withdraw at the smallest hint from her, but her demeanor was nothing short of keen and peaceful as she leaned into him. He relaxed as soon as she was tucked against his side and couldn't refrain a deep sigh of contentment at the delightful warmth that spread through his body. Right at this moment, he realised how empty his life had been those last few months.

The dark fairy smiled, amused by the way his rib cage had heaved almost dramatically in pure bliss. It seemed he had missed curling up with her at least as much as she had...

She closed her eyes and let the embrace of her raven work its own special magic on her. His heartbeat, his familiar scent and his strong arms around her were making her feel whole and loved again. She had no idea how it was possible, but he was healing her from the inside.

For once, she was tempted to follow Balthazar's advice and focus her time and energy on recovering, especially if it meant abandoning herself in the arms of her servant every single night.

"I want you here with me tonight," she said in a whisper.

"Of course, mistress," he replied with a nod.

She smiled and leaned her head against his shoulder, revelling in the moment. A feeling of fondness for him warmed her chest as he held her tighter and gently lowered his head on top of hers. But for the first time in months, she didn't try to shoo the emotion away. By now, she knew there was no point in doing so.

"It is not an order, you know," she added as an afterthought. _It's never been an order._

She didn't know what was getting into her all of a sudden, but she had this strange urge to make sure his actions came from some kind of affectionate feelings for her, and not only out of duty. Such thoughts were foolish, but it would make her feel better, and this was precisely why she was in his arms right now, wasn't it?

He caught her eye and slowly took her hand into his. He was aware he was breaking the rules, but by the way her slender fingers interlocked with his instantly, he could tell she didn't mind.

"There's nowhere I'd rather sleep, Mistress" he whispered earnestly.

She took a deep breath and refrained from doing anything rash - like letting show how much his words pleased her. How was she supposed to remain cool and indifferent when he made her shattered heart melt back together in a torrent of love and yearning? Those feelings had been the ones to scare her away a few months ago, but now she could almost let herself enjoy them. At the worst, she saw them as a mere inconvenience that could be dealt with. She just had to keep herself from doing anything that could lead him to think she liked him more than was acceptable. He did have the power to hurt her, but as long as he never figured that out, he shouldn't constitute a danger to her. The thought of Diaval being a threat to anyone did sound absolutely ridiculous - he was the sweetest and most caring creature she ever knew - but losing her wings to a loved one had taught her to never again take anyone for granted. She would end up utterly consummated by pain and rage if...

"Mistress?" Diaval called, putting an end to her darkening thoughts.

He had noticed a slight frown on her face, and suspected her to be brooding again. She'd been doing that a lot, lately, and it always seemed to make her more miserable by the second.

"Can we read a book?" he inquired, in the hope to distract her.

She raised her eyes to him and a small smile tugged at her lips. He always knew when to divert her attention from painful matters. Even when he was left in his raven form, he would fly into nearby trees or somehow make a fool of himself anytime he noticed her mood darkening too much. Despite the usual scolding he would get for making such a racket, it had saved her from losing herself in sorrow more than once. She could just hope he knew how grateful she was for that.

In any case, the dark fairy would have gladly welcomed the distraction if only he hadn't been stifling a yawn while asking her. His eyes were also tired and he looked like he was putting extra effort in keeping them open. The day must have been particularly draining for him.

"We may tomorrow, if you wish. Tonight you need rest. Lie down," she instructed, reluctantly pulling away from him.

Diaval gave a small pat to the glowing flower above and obeyed. He watched as the flower obediently closed, plunging the nest into darkness. His mistress was soon curling back against his side and he took her into his arms. The first thing he noticed was that she got thinner since they last slept together, and the raven-man made a mental note to get her to improve her eating habits in the future.

She had laid her head on his good shoulder, one hand resting on his chest and the other under his head. A pleased sound rumbled deep in his throat as she started to scratch at the base of his skull.

Maleficent couldn't help a light chuckle at the peculiar noise coming from her servant. She closed her eyes, allowing herself a small smile. She had forgotten how easy it was to relax in her nest without an aching back - or heart.

However, sleep didn't come easily to the fairy. Today, she had finally given up trying to deny her feelings and had let their closeness grow back to the way it was. But when it should have been a simple relief to enjoy, it was in fact bringing up more uncertainties than anything. This was unknown territory for them, and Maleficent realised she didn't even know what exactly that made them. She couldn't lie to herself into thinking of him as a mere servant or even a simple pet any longer.

Her mind was restless for almost an hour, raising more questions than answers. Would his arms be able to ward off her grief forever? How long until her feelings made her crave for more? How much _more_ could she ask of him before crossing the line? Were his devotion and caring nature the only reasons for his willingness to comfort her? Didn't he resent her at all for pulling away from him for so long? What had she become for him?

The beginning of a headache made her twitch in irritation and an annoyed sigh left her.

"Mistress?" She heard him whisper. "Are you still awake?"

The fairy opened her eyes and found him staring back at her.

"I can't sleep either," he admitted sheepishly.

She raised an eyebrow, wondering if the same kind of thoughts were plaguing his mind as well. By now, he should have been long asleep, especially after the eventful day he'd had.

"Is something troubling you?" Maleficent asked while shifting to better face him.

The raven turned man pressed his lips together in a thin line. He had been going through the best ways to travel safely from the Moors to the human kingdom. The thought of getting killed or captured without Maleficent even knowing about it was enough to keep him awake despite his exhaustion. He couldn't stand the idea of not returning to her when she needed him most.

"I was thinking about how to avoid getting shot at again the next time you'll send me to the kingdom," he confessed softly.

Of course, he trusted her to find a new set of wings to do her bidding in no time, but he was afraid she would lose herself even further if she thought her faithful raven had chosen to abandon her. She would think of herself as broken for good and unlovable when she was anything but. He tightened his hold on her as if to protect her from such silly notions. Despite what she may already be thinking, she was far from unlovable, Diaval thought fiercely. The deep feelings bubbling inside him anytime he looked at her were proof of that.

"Don't be daft," Maleficent replied, rolling her eyes at him. "After what happened today I won't send you anywhere without appropriate protection."

How could he not know she would never let those filthy humans hurt him again? How could he not know she cared for him way more than any information he might carry? Guilt rose in her chest when she realised it certainly had something to do with how distant and cold she'd been to him, lately. She let her hand comb through his hair for a moment, as if it would help to make amends for her past behaviour, and scratched at his favorite spot.

"Protection? With magic?" Diaval asked idly, closing his eyes under the lovely caresses. He tilted his head to the side in order to grant her better access and managed not to moan in pleasure while his thumb drew circles on her waist.

"Yes. I'm not sure what kind of spells to use on you yet, but we've got a week to figure it out."

She saw the excited glint in his eye, the same that would always appear whenever gleaming things or magic were involved, and cut him short before he could start chattering endlessly about how he would like her to enchant him - surely with the mention of something glittering in the process. She would need his input on this, but right now was no time for such things.

"We'll talk about it tomorrow. In the meantime, you should try to get some rest."

"Yes, Mistress," he complied obediently.

The raven turned man was about to relax into slumber when he remembered she hadn't been able to find sleep either. What if something was bothering his mistress? Maybe it would help her to talk about it.

"What about you? Is there something on your mind?"

By the way Maleficent tensed, he could tell she didn't want to talk about it, so he closed his eyes and didn't push the matter. He had nearly fallen asleep when he heard her voice addressing him.

"I've been pushing you away for the last few months," she started slowly, meeting his gaze. "Do you know why?"

Diaval's heart skipped a beat. He would have never hoped to be given an explanation about his mistress' suddenly distant behaviour of late, yet it seemed to be where this conversation was heading. She sounded careful and reluctant, but her eyes were determined. He was truly touched by her willingness to go through what he knew would be an uncomfortable topic just for his sake.

"No, Mistress."

Maleficent took a deep breath to prevent herself from backing away. She'd been this far. She knew what she had to say. The only thing left was to actually say it.

"Our bond has grown beyond the ties of a mistress and her servant. When it had come to my attention, I was reluctant to let that happen."

Obviously, it was an understatement of the real reason, but there were things she couldn't reveal to him.

"I understand, Mistress."

 _Of course he would_ , she thought fondly, and felt guilty for taking advantage of his forgiving nature again. She'd been doing it far too often since the day they met.

"Today, I realised it was in my best interest to accept that fact instead of fighting it, but I still have no idea what that makes us."

Diaval looked at her, wondering if he could take the risk of telling her the truth. As far as he was concerned, she was his mate. That fact had become clear when nesting season came without the usual call of nature urging him to choose a life partner. His heart already belonged to his mistress. It always would. He had found his place in the world, and it was by her side.

Lost in his daydreaming, he reached for her hand without thinking, but stopped short of touching her when he remembered he wasn't supposed to make any moves towards her. The fact that she had tolerated his boldness of late didn't mean he should push his luck.

The dark fairy glanced at him when she felt his fingers brush tentatively the hand she had resting on his chest, and frowned as he pulled back immediately. She seized his withdrawing hand and rolled her eyes at the delighted smile that spread on his face. She was glad his deference prevented him from straying too far away from the rules she had carefully set up with him, but now she wondered if it wouldn't be more effective to allow him some freedom about such things. Having him actually _choose_ to give her tenderness and affection would make the whole thing infinitely more pleasurable than when he was merely following her command. It would make it feel real. As if they were...

"What am I to you, Diaval?" She suddenly asked in the hope to distract her mind from such thinking.

The raven-man frowned. The moment seemed to be the perfect occasion for him to tell her he considered her as his mate, but he couldn't bring himself to do so. At least not so bluntly. She had just let herself get close to him - this time, apparently, for good - so the last thing he wanted was to scare her away. He had to be smart about this.

"I'll always be your servant, Mistress," he started, squeezing her hand comfortingly. "But if I may speak freely…" She nodded. "I've been thinking of you as family for a while."

Family. Was it what they had become? Her parents died long before she could remember what it was like to have a family, but she imagined the notion wasn't too far fetched. They practically lived together after all, and even though they sometimes had some disagreements, they cared for each other very much. Wasn't it what families were all about? A sweet smile graced her lips and she closed her eyes. Family. She liked the thought of that. It wasn't too revealing nor too fickle a word for the deep bond that had grown between them.

"I think it quite suits our situation," she admitted on a sleepy voice.

Her words made his face lit up with a wide grin. He couldn't believe she found the term appropriate. It could only mean she felt the same as he did! He thought his heart might explode with the exhilaration of officially having a family of his own. She might never want to be his mate, but at least they were a family, and to him it was pretty much the same.

The dark fairy peeked at him through her eyelashes. "Wipe that giant smirk off your face and go to sleep, already," she growled in annoyance.

She knew the slight smile on her face had ruined the effect when she heard his careless chuckle, but she didn't care much. She was just glad her approval seemed to make him so utterly happy.

"Of course, Mistress," he obliged at once. "Good night," he added softly, drinking in the blissful feeling of holding the creature he loved most against him.

Her face relaxed into a peaceful smile, eyelids fluttering close once again.

"Good night, Diaval," she whispered.

Her peace of mind restored, Maleficent welcomed a well deserved sleep while trying to dismiss the fact that a family of two unrelated individuals from both gender sounded an awful lot like mates…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was going to involve some kissing in this chapter but I'll let Maleficent some more time to settle with the situation. From now on, their relationship should evolve a bit more easily. Next chapter we'll have a bit of action going on and dig deeper into fairy life and culture. I might write another smaller Maleval fanfiction before starting to work on it, though.
> 
> Again, many thanks to DancingKitKat for her help and support.


End file.
